Oil Spill Fate and Weathering at Sea

Ground-truth sampling of oils fate and weathering of resurfaced oil released from 850m depth (DeepSpill 2000)

The behaviour of oils spilled at sea depends highly on the prevailing conditions (e.g. temperature, sea-state, release conditions) and on the physical and chemical compositions of the oil. Several examples from oil spills have shown that variation in crude oils properties (even within crudes produced in the North Sea) cause them to behave very differently when spilled at sea. Also recent incidents of various light, medium and heavy bunker fuel oils like the North Cape Spill in US, Erika incident i France, the Baltic Carrier i Denmark and the Green Ålesund and John R incidents in Norway have shown a wide spectre in physical behavour, biological effects and in the performance of reponse options. Prior knowledge of the likely behaviour and weathering of various oils and pre-spill analyses of the feasibility and effectiveness of different response strategies under various environmental conditions, are essential part of any oil spill contingency planning to optimize the overall "Net Environmental Benefit" of a combat operation.
SINTEF has since the Bravo / Ekofisk blowout in 1977 had continuos research activity studying the fate and weathering of oil spills. This has involved both laboratory methodologies, basin studies , numerical models development, as well as full-scale oil spill field experiments .

SINTEF has a high level of competence within the following oil spill research areas:

• Oil Weathering studies (lab. / basins / field experiments)
• Oil slick characterisation:
• Oil spill identification / Fingerprinting
• Film thickness colour codes / Appearance code
• Performance of response options at sea
• Mechanical Recover
• Chemical Treatment (dispersant / demulsifiers)
• In situ burning
• Shoreline clean-up / bioremediation
• Oil weathering Modelling (SINTEF OWM)
• Contingency and Response Modelling (OSCAR analysis)
• NEBA - (Net Environmental Benefit Analysis)
• Environmental Risk Analyses
• Contingency planning  

Contact person: Per S.Daling