On March 24-25, hundreds of participants representing over a dozen organizations will gather in Katy, TX, for a two-day subsea incident response drill led by HWCG LLC and Bennu Oil & Gas.

After Deepwater Horizon, the offshore industry came together with the shared goal of quickly and comprehensively responding to a subsea blowout and minimizing the potential impact to people, property and the environment. The consortium they founded, HWCG LLC, continues to safeguard the Gulf of Mexico with a robust Mutual Aid program, strategic partnerships with vendors, industry-leading intelligence, a series of crisis exercises and carefully designed drills.

The annual drill is by far the largest and most complex exercise each year, activating the HWCG Mutual Aid program. Bennu Oil & Gas will host this year’s drill, playing the role of “Responsible Party” for the purpose of the exercise. Drill objectives will include coordinating detailed plans for debris removal, subsea dispersant use, capping stack deployment and flow back operations as determined by the exercise situation.

Participants from each member company will commit their time and resources to assist the host in successfully completing the simulated emergency scenario. HWCG’s strategic service partners Trendsetter Engineering, Helix Energy Solutions Group, and other prime vendors will contribute subject matter expertise during the drill held at a predesignated command post in the Houston area.

“Our approach to deepwater well containment has always centered on consulting with the industry’s foremost experts while leveraging the best available technology. Our annual drill showcases the vast level of collaboration inherent in our response efforts, which becomes even more critical at full scale,” says David Coatney, Managing Director of HWCG, LLC.

The two-day exercise will conclude with an after-action “hotwash” discussion to identify key takeaways. Representatives from the BSEE, the US Coast Guard, NOAA , TGLO, LOSCO, Gulf of Mexico Foundation, and other organizations will augment the exercise with an integrated perspective and provide feedback that will be used to further advance HWCG’s robust well containment plan.