Florida's Nova Southeastern University (NSU) has received a $1.6 million grant to provide disaster planning and response training to oil and gas industry workers, building on an existing partnership with Shell.

In a statement, the university explained that the five-year grant from the National Institute of Health's Institute of Environmental Safety will be used to significantly expand joint operations with the Dutch company based at its offices in Robert, Louisiana.

Cecilia Rokusek, a project manager for NSU's Centre for Bioterrorism and All-Hazards Preparedness (CBAP), commented: "We wrote the grant long before the BP oil spill, so we had no idea that the need for this type of training would become so critical."

Over the lifetime of the grant, the department expects to train thousands of oilfield workers in all areas of disaster preparedness and prevention, as well as providing training to law enforcement officers and shipping supervisors.

The oil and gas training programme will be overseen by Kelley Davis, an NSU associate professor of microbiology and a CBAP faculty trainer.

Oil and Gas Directory: Training and Development