Marine Terminal Self-Assessment and Berth Management with OCIMF MTMSA Training

Marine Terminal Self-Assessment and Berth Management with OCIMF MTMSA is a five-day advanced course for people who lead, audit or improve berth activity at a jetty or sea berth. You learn to score each MTMSA element against evidence, track performance indicators and turn the gaps into a ranked plan. You leave with a completed Berth Self-Assessment Workbook. The course is delivered by Mercury Training Center.

About This Course

Many sites hold procedures yet cannot show a vetting team or their own board how well the berth is actually governed. You should already supervise, inspect or assure jetty work. Through the week you rate real evidence, challenge weak scores with peers and build an improvement plan you can defend.

Who It Is For

• Leaders accountable for a jetty, sea island or single point mooring and its performance.
• Assurance and audit staff who verify that berth procedures work as written.
• HSE specialists who investigate incidents and track leading indicators at the waterfront.
• Mooring, loading and pilotage coordinators who manage the ship/shore interface day to day.
• Engineers who plan maintenance and change on hoses, loading arms and fenders.

This course is not for new jetty hands who need first practical skills, who are better served by a foundation course on berth duties, or for shipboard officers preparing for tanker vetting, who gain more from a vessel-side inspection course.

Competencies You Will Build

• Evidence-based element scoring: you rate each MTMSA element at the right stage and can show the records behind it.
• Indicator design: you select leading and lagging measures that reveal whether berth controls really work.
• Interface assurance: you test the jetty-to-vessel checklist, communication and mooring practice against what happens on shift.
• Gap prioritization: you rank weaknesses by consequence and effort and assign clear owners.
• Change and incident learning: you link investigations and modifications back into the self-assessment cycle.
• Assurance reporting: you present the berth's maturity to leadership in a clear, honest summary.

What You Will Be Able to Do

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• From a set of site records, assign a stage to each MTMSA element and justify it in writing.
• Given a year of berth data, build an indicator dashboard that shows trends and outliers.
• Using a vessel arrival file, trace the ship/shore checklist and identify where practice departs from procedure.
• Given a list of findings, produce a ranked improvement plan with owners, actions and review points.
• From an incident report, extract the lessons and update the relevant element scores.
• Using your completed scores, draft a one-page maturity summary for senior leaders.

Course Content

Day 1: The MTMSA Framework and Its Logic

• Purpose and Structure of OCIMF MTMSA for Jetty Assurance
• Element Stages and Expectations from Basic to Excellent Practice
• Main and Best Practice Guidance Within Each Element
• Collecting Records, Interviews and Observations as Assessment Evidence
• Setting Up the Assessment Team and Scope for a Single Berth

Day 2: Leadership, People and Harbor Interface

• Leadership, Accountability and Assurance Roles at the Waterfront
• Competence Matrices Aligned With the OCIMF Operator Competence Guide
• Port and Harbor Coordination for Pilotage, Tugs and Approaches
• Jetty Layout Reviews for Mooring Patterns, Fenders and Access
• Scoring People and Leadership Elements From Sample Evidence

Day 3: Ship/Shore Interface and Loading Activity

• Ship/Shore Checklist Practice and Pre-Arrival Information Exchange
• Loading Arm, Hose and Manifold Controls During Product Movement
• Mooring Monitoring and Line Load Review at Exposed Berths
• Emergency Shutdown Links and Communication Between Vessel and Jetty
• Assessing Interface Elements Against Shift Observations

Day 4: Indicators, Change and Learning

• Selecting Leading and Lagging Indicators for Berth Performance
• Trend Analysis to Target Resources on the Weakest Controls
• Management of Change for Jetty Equipment and Procedures
• Incident Investigation Findings Feeding Element Scores
• Environmental and Emergency Preparedness Element Review

Day 5: Practice Assessment and Improvement Planning

• Exercise: Full Element Scoring of a Sample Jetty Evidence Pack
• Exercise: Building the Indicator Dashboard From Berth Data
• Exercise: Peer Challenge of Scores and Evidence Gaps
• Exercise: Ranking Gaps Into an Owned Improvement Plan
• Completing the Berth Self-Assessment Workbook and Maturity Summary

Case Studies and Exercises

The following are suggested activities that the group may adapt to its own sites.

• Case study: a crude export jetty with repeated mooring line parting; you decide which elements are scored too high and why.
• Case study: a petrochemical product berth after a hose failure; you trace the investigation back to the change and maintenance elements.
• Exercise: a refinery import berth with incomplete competence records; you produce a competence gap list with owners.
• Exercise: an LPG loading facility preparing for an external vetting visit; you draft the maturity summary for leadership.

What You Take Back

You take back the Berth Self-Assessment Workbook, filled in with your own scoring logic, evidence lists and plan. In your first month you use it to run a first self-assessment round at your berth, agree owners with your manager and set the first indicator review.

• Element scoring sheets with evidence references for each stage.
• An indicator dashboard template with trend rules.
• A ranked improvement plan with owners and review points.
• A one-page maturity summary for senior leaders.

Quick Answers (FAQ)

What should I know before a marine terminal self-assessment course with OCIMF MTMSA?

You should already work at or with a jetty and understand vessel berthing, mooring and product movement in practice. Prior audit or HSE experience helps.

How does MTMSA berth management training differ from a general jetty operations course?

A general operations course teaches how to run a berth. This course teaches how to judge how well a berth is governed: scoring elements, testing evidence, building indicators and planning improvement.

How often should a marine terminal repeat its MTMSA self-assessment?

Most operators repeat it at a fixed interval and after significant change, such as new equipment, a serious incident or a change of operator. The value comes from comparing rounds, so keep evidence and scoring logic consistent between them.

What do I take back from MTMSA self-assessment and berth management training?

You take back the Berth Self-Assessment Workbook: element scoring sheets, an indicator dashboard, a ranked improvement plan and a maturity summary. It is ready to use for the first self-assessment round at your own berth.

For Your Manager

After this course your team member can lead a structured self-assessment of the berth against OCIMF MTMSA, back each score with evidence and present clear priorities. They return with the Berth Self-Assessment Workbook, which is first used to run the site's next assessment round and to set the indicator review with leadership.