The move comes as new oil discoveries are being made on the North West Shelf in once overlooked areas.
The infamous Bravo blowout of 1977 sparked Norway into action to develop world's best practice collaboration on oil spill response.
The incident occurred at Phillips Petroleum's Ekofisk Bravo platform before a blowout preventer had been installed.
While no significant environmental damage occurred, it took seven days to cap the well with rough seas and higher than average air temperatures aiding the break-up of much of the oil.
Subsequent investigations found human errors led to the mechanical failure of the safety valve that caused the disaster, and then-Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland decided mechanical recovery would be the way of recovering oil in the North Sea from then on.
A system of unparalleled collaboration on oil spill recovery was developed the following year, now known as NOFO - Norwegian Clean Seas Association For Operating Companies.
With North Sea activity slowing as the province matures, and decommissioning taking precedence over new discoveries, the Norwegians are looking to renewal of the NWS as a potential new lease of life.
Under a system known as ‘NOFO Notation', industry organises to take equipment stockpiles at depots to easily and quickly mobilise on commercial platform supply vessels, and through agreements already in place with ship owners they can be called on for rapid response to accidents.
They also have an agreement with commercial tanker owners so they can call on them, because the idea is to have a PSV on site at all times during an oil spill.
Once the oil is skimmed out, a standby shuttle tanker is used and the oil is discharged by disconnecting the skimmer and putting on a portable pump, to recover all the remaining oil.
When it comes to the main response to blowouts and big oil skimming systems, the technology developed by local firms Framo and NorLense are used as the main contingency, while other companies collaborate for other parts of the supply chain for oil spill response.
A process that some may find controversial is NOFO's standard practice of discharging at least 100 tonnes of oil onto the water in a controlled area in accordance with the Norwegian Environment Agency's discharge requirements.
The exercise, known as ‘oil on water', has been conducted with the Norwegian Coastal Administration annually since the 1980s as part of ongoing work to verify, maintain and continuously develop the country's natural oil spill preparedness.
NorLense's Stronstad-based international sales manager Aril Jorgensen told Energy News when in Perth for the Asia Pacific's Spillcon conference this month that this practice is a big reason why many of the leading companies in the oil spill response community are from Norway.
"So we're trying to promote the Norwegian model in Australia, because the North Sea activity is down because of the oil price, so many OSV [offshore supply vessel] owners are looking at new opportunities in the markets and Australia is definitely an interesting company for many of them'" he told Energy News.
"The NOFO Notation is of interest to oil majors because vessels are now available for the same day rate as other vessels, but are ready to go into oil spill exercises.
"Environmentalists are happy about the oil on water exercise, because they know that this is a work of verifying, maintaining and continuous development of the national oil spill preparedness."
NorLense's oil booms are required under NOFO's oil spill response plan, but the joint venture it formed with Dampier-based Australian Marine Services to market it in Australia has experienced slow uptake, except a coup two years ago when Chevron two offshore oil boom systems and mobilised its own dedicated oil spill response vessel and undertook about 50 deployments in 18 months.
Yet the alliance with Dampier-based AMS was no coincidence, as its founder Graham Evans said the NWS was like a "mini Gulf of Mexico".
"That's why we've concentrated our efforts in this area, knowing that 95% of the offshore oil activity in Australia is in the North West Shelf," Evans, managing director of the Australian-registered AMSNOR JV, told Energy News.
"The volumes are a lot higher than the Bass Strait. The Bight area is one we're looking at, but for any one rig down in Bass Strait there's probably 10 drilling in the North West Shelf."
Aside from being on the verge to helping Australia become the world's top LNG exporter next year, the NWS also has important discoveries like the Quadrant Energy-operated Roc-1 well, which last month revealed gross 3C resources of 372 billion cubic feet and 18 million barrels of condensate, almost as much again updip with additional prospective resource of 328Bcf and 16MMbbl.
Roc-2 is planned for the second half of the year.
It's also perhaps not so much a coincidence that Carnarvon Petroleum managing director Adrian Cook has told Energy News that the Carnarvon Basin, Australia's most prolific producer, is on the cusp of a third wave of exploration and is roughly where the North Sea was 20 years ago.
The difference - and potential benefit - for Australian operations is that the northern part of Norway is in total darkness for four months of the year, making its oil spill recovery people experts at doing it an pitch black, and the Norwegian Continental Shelf is known to be a particularly harsh offshore environment.
