spill response
and Sediment Dynamics lab at VIMS. “Light can’t go nearly as far in water – let alone turbid water – as compared to sound waves.” Friedrichs notes that acoustic instruments also tend to be less delicate than their optical counterparts, and are better able to withstand biofouling and the high pressures of the deep sea. Messrs Panetta and Friedrichs conducted the first experiments for the project in December 2011 at the Ohmsett Wave Tank in Leonardo, New Jersey, which serves as the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility
penetrating the plume,” said Mr Panetta, “whereas the LISST would have been ineffective. Our initial measurements indicate the acoustic measurements can track the droplet size for a subsurface release of oil.”
for the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). During the tests, Panetta and Friedrichs compared the performance of optical and acoustic instruments borrowed from their labs at VIMS, transmitting, receiving, and interpreting sound waves and light as they reflected against an aqueous slurry of 20 parts of oil to 1 part dispersant. In a second experiment at VIMS, the pair performed a similar experiment but on a much smaller and simpler scale. This time, they compared the performance of their optical and acoustic instruments in a small bucket, adding dispersants to the same crude oil used at Ohmsett and creating turbulence with a drill- powered paint mixer.
They recently conducted a third test in
Norway, in a tank operated by Sintef. This ‘tower tank’ was specifically created for studying subsurface releases of oil and has room for various instruments, including video cameras, a LISST, and, in this case, the acoustic equipment supplied by the VIMS team.
In all three cases, the team’s preliminary results qualitatively confirm the potential superiority of an acoustic approach to monitoring oil dispersion. “Our tests showed that acoustic techniques were effective at
The next step, he said, is to “take the data and turn them into a measurement method that would tell us exactly what the droplet size is. That would be valuable to the people spraying the dispersants, and valuable to the people modelling the fate of the oil, because during the cleanup of an oil spill, the size of the oil droplets affects everything.” Panetta and Friedrichs say their ultimate goal is to partner with the private sector so that commercial sonar manufacturers can adapt the new technology to their existing instruments for use by the oil and gas industry. “That’s the longer term technology plan,” Mr Panetta concluded, “but we obviously have to first figure out the science behind it to make it work. We have to solve the physics problem, and figure out which signals to analyse and how to interpret them so we can get a quantitative measure of the oil-droplet size.”
Meanwhile, the US investigation into the
Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 could take into account learning and lessons from the UK. Investigators from the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) in the US visited the UK recently on a fact-finding mission to gain further understanding of the UK oil and gas industry’s regulatory regime and safety culture. The CSB was particularly interested to learn about the role of regulators, workforce engagement and how asset integrity issues are managed.
Lead CSB investigator Cheryl MacKenzie and colleagues visited Aberdeen on 25 April. Among other things, the CSB team attended the Step Change in Safety Leadership Team
meeting. Step Change in Safety, which seeks to make the UK the safest place to work in the worldwide oil and gas industry, is unparalleled elsewhere in the world and the Leadership Team comprises industry, regulators, trade unions and the workforce.
During the visit to Oil & Gas UK they were also brought up to speed with the work of the Well Life Cycle Practices Forum (WLCPF). This group was established by the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) to provide a permanent platform for industry to share and build good practices around well design, construction and completion. OSPRAG itself was established in the UK in 2010 in response to the Macondo disaster and completed its work last year. The CSB also gained an insight into the UK sector’s asset integrity key performance indicators; part of arrangements for monitoring and measuring major accident risk contributors.
Oil & Gas UK’s health and safety director,
Robert Paterson, said: “The learning process is very much a two-way thing. The goal-setting safety regime of the UKCS has been in place and has matured since Piper Alpha and is generally regarded as being world class. There is a big focus on workforce involvement and the importance of an effective ‘safety culture’ among workers offshore. Likewise, we have learnt much from the Americans and, as part of continuous improvement, we continue to implement much of this learning for the long term through bodies such as the WLCPF.” Ms MacKenzie said the visit had proved “very insightful” into the way offshore safety is managed in the UK. “We were particularly interested in learning about systems that have been developed overseas for the reporting of lagging and leading safety indicators for major accident prevention.” OSJ
Caribbean ‘lacks resources to combat oil spills’
The Caribbean region, including Jamaica and other small island developing states, lacks the resources to combat a major oil spill, delegates to a regional convention on oil spill prevention and response have been warned.
Opening a convention to discuss oil-spill prevention, preparedness and response in the Gulf of Mexico, keynote speaker Christopher Cargill, chairman of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, said his country and other islands in the region do not have access to resources to combat major oil spills of the magnitude of the BP Deepwater Horizon incident. He told delegates: “We understand that
the BP Deepwater Horizon incident involved 47,000 persons, 600 vessels and 120 aircraft and the responders had access to a Spill
60 I Offshore Support Journal I June 2012 Liability
Trust Fund. The development of a mechanism for co-operation is therefore a critical part of the preparedness in the region as Jamaica and other small states will have to rely heavily on their neighbours to the north for assistance in dealing with such events.” The objective
of the convention, held in
Kingston, Jamaica from 11 to 13 April, was to further regional preparedness and co-operation to oversee the offshore oil exploration and improve oil-spill response preparedness and capabilities. This was the third such forum and aimed to complete a ‘Caribbean multinational authorities matrix’ to aid regional plans for the offshore oil industry. Previous discussions looked at the legal and policy framework for drilling operations and issues related to preparedness
and response to pollution incidents arising from oil and gas exploration and production. According to Bertrand Smith, director of legal affairs at the Maritime Authority of Jamaica the meeting “was important to Jamaica, as we ratified the IMO Oil Pollution and Response Convention (OPRC) two years ago and are currently incorporating its provisions into national legislation to deal with discharges from oil and gas platforms, among other things”. The convention was sponsored by the Maritime Authority of Jamaica and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, and the Regional Activity Centre/Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Information and Training Centre.
www.osjonline.com
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