Question 36 MODU03 - Ballast Control Operator

The Correct Answer is A **Why option A ("securing the unit as in preparation for a severe storm") is correct:** When a Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) suffers a casualty requiring an orderly evacuation (Abandon Ship), the primary focus before personnel depart is to minimize ongoing risks and prepare the unit for being unattended. Securing the unit involves critical actions that overlap significantly with preparations for severe weather (such as a hurricane or storm), including: 1. **Minimizing fire risk:** Shutting down non-essential equipment and machinery, isolating fuel lines, and securing ventilation. 2. **Ensuring stability/survival:** Stopping drilling operations, securing well control (if necessary), and ensuring the unit is stable and capable of surviving until rescue or assessment is possible. 3. **Preventing environmental damage:** Shutting down systems that could cause pollution (e.g., stopping overboard discharges). This comprehensive securing process is standard procedure during an evacuation to protect the asset, the environment, and potentially aid in future salvage, making A the essential preparatory step among the choices. **Why the other options are incorrect:** * **B) distributing self-contained breathing devices:** SCBAs (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) are primarily used for firefighting or entering hazardous atmospheres (like H2S or smoke). While they are essential safety equipment, distributing them is not a standard preparatory action for an orderly **evacuation** via lifeboats/liferafts. Personnel are expected to move to the muster station and embark on survival craft, which do not require SCBAs for routine abandonment. * **C) taking a soil sample of the bottom:** Taking a soil sample is a geological task related to drilling operations or geotechnical surveys. It has absolutely no relevance to emergency evacuation procedures or preparing the unit for abandonment. * **D) All of the above:** Since options B and C are incorrect, this option is also incorrect.