SECURITY EXERCISE READINESS PROGRAM FOR THE STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE

The Security Exercise Readiness Program, or SERF, is a series of response-oriented exercises designed to evaluate the readiness of the protection force at DOE's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). International Energy Associates Limited (IEAL) developed SERF in 1984 for Wells Fargo Guard Services (WFGS), the SPR protective services contractor. The purpose of this paper is to describe the systems methodology used to develop SERF, the structure of the program, and the computer-based information system that tracks and analyzes the exercise results. The work was performed by IEAL under subcontract to WFGS, a prime contractor to DOE at the SPR. The SPR is a complex of seven crude oil storage sites, and a Project Management Office, widely dispersed along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas. The storage sites' caverns and mines, which are leached from salt domes, can store up to 750,000,000 barrels of a mix of sweet and sour crude oil, an energy asset to be used only in the case of a national emergency and only at the direction of the President. The critical and unique mission of the SPR has led the Administration to designate the SPR a sensitive facility important to a national security. As such, the SPR maintains a security program designed to counter a range of threats including highly trained and motivated terrorist groups. This program includes a response-oriented security force with tactical capabilities. SERF is a key element of Wells Fargo1s comprehensive program of training, evaluation, and enhancement to maintain this response capability.