Kota Kinabalu: Sabah conducted its first Maritime Mass Rescue Operation (MMRO) exercise, bringing together 31 government agencies and industry partners to test the State’s ability to respond to a large-scale maritime disaster involving hundreds of casualties.
Sabah and Labuan Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Director First Admiral (Maritime) Mohd Khairulanuar Abd Majid @ Razali said the Search and Rescue Exercise (Sarex) Ex Limbawan 2026 was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of search and rescue operations under the Maritime Mass Rescue Operation Plan 2022, the Carilamat Standard Operating Procedures and the Omsar Guidelines for offshore oil platform incidents.
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He said the exercise was organised by the MMEA through the Maritime Rescue Sub Centre (MRSC) Kota Kinabalu in collaboration with Petronas and PTTEP Sabah Oil Limited.
“It is intended to ensure our search and rescue framework remains effective and capable of responding to major offshore emergencies,” he said in a statement.
Mohd Khairulanuar said the exercise also tested inter-agency coordination, communication, standard operating procedures, asset deployment and personnel competency in managing incidents involving large numbers of casualties.
More than 200 participants from 31 government agencies and industry partners took part in the exercise, which simulated a major emergency involving 382 crew members aboard the FPSO Kikeh offshore production facility.
The exercise was conducted simultaneously at Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu as the coordination centre, the Sepanggar Maritime Jetty as the search and rescue operations base, and waters off Kota Kinabalu as the incident site.
The scenario involved an accommodation work barge losing propulsion while transferring personnel to the floating production storage and offloading vessel during a major maintenance turnaround.
The barge subsequently collided with the starboard side of the FPSO, triggering a simulated mass rescue operation requiring a coordinated response from multiple agencies.
A total of 19 sea and land assets were mobilised, involving the MMEA, Royal Malaysia Police, Royal Malaysian Navy, Fire and Rescue Department, Health Ministry, Civil Defence Force, Fisheries Department, Petronas, PTTEP Malaysia Asset and other participating agencies.
Operations at sea were coordinated by KM Lahad Datu, which acted as the On Scene Coordinator to ensure search and rescue efforts were carried out effectively.
“Exercises such as this are vital to ensure every agency understands its role and is able to respond swiftly, efficiently and in a coordinated manner should a real incident occur at sea. The experience and lessons gained from this exercise will continue to strengthen Malaysia’s maritime search and rescue capabilities,” he said.
