Proposal focuses on the design and implementation of a field spill in Svalbard, Norway in March 2006, where several remote sensing systems will be tested in both surface and airborne modes. Experiment will be conducted over solid land fast sea ice representative of the type of ice found in many near shore Arctic regions of the world including the Alaskan North Slope.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) funded and conducted two series of large-scale dispersant experiments in very cold water at Ohmsett The National Oil Spill Response Test Facility, located in Leonardo, New Jersey in February-March 2006 and January-March 2007. Alaska North Slope, Endicott, Northstar and Pt. McIntyre crude oils and Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 dispersants were used in the two test series.
This international joint research project is designed to gather data to support decision makers in the process of determining whether dispersants should be used in low energy environments. This information will be useful for dispersant decision making in ice cover (an ice field reduces wave motion) or other calm conditions. Questions to be addressed are: Will the dispersant stay with the oil until there is enough energy to disperse the slick?
How much energy is needed to disperse the slick after dispersants are applied?
The purpose of this proposal is to conduct a planning workshop for an experimental oil spill in pack ice offshore Canada. Specifically this work will: Prepare a background information document for the proposed workshop;
Plan the workshop;
Facilitate the workshop; and,
Write a report on the results of the workshop.
October 2006 Conduct a series of in situ burn experiments on the scale of 50 m2 with chemical herders and crude oil at the Fire Training Grounds, Prudhoe Bay, AK. The burns would be conducted in a specially prepared pit containing broken sea ice.
This project represented follow up on work to develop technologies to detect oil located in or under ice. The following tasks will be accomplished:
1. Analysis of additional water and ice samples collected in November 2004 at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, NH.
Lead Investigator: Victor Jones, Exploration Technologies Inc. Houston (ETI)
Experiments were conducted in 2002 and 2003 at Ohmsett The National Oil Spill Response Test Facility to assess the dispersibility of fresh and weathered Alaskan and Canadian crude oils in very cold water. Results from these experiments indicate that the crude oils tested were dispersible at near freezing water temperatures. However, there has been criticism of the findings related to the heating of the viscous oils prior to discharge onto the waters surface and subsequent dispersant application.
This project positively detected oil trapped in and under ice with two completely independent technologies, both of which have potential for further development and large-scale field testing. In many respects (limited size of spills, lack of natural cracks and fractures in the ice), the design of this test program represents a worst-case scenario, compared with the expected characteristics of a real spill under sea ice.
During the past two years there has been an increased use of dispersants as a response technique to offshore marine oil spills. The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently revised the National Project Schedule with regards to dispersants, and the cold water application and performance of these materials has come under critical review.
This purpose of this research project is to investigate the minimum ignitable thickness, combustion rate, effects of waves and residue amount for crude oils burned in situ in cold water and broken ice conditions. The tasks will: Conduct a literature review of in-situ burning in broken ice;
Perform a series of small-scale scoping burn tests in brash and frazil ice in an indoor tank in order to assist with the design of larger tests;
Develop test protocols and the test procedures;
Conduct mid-scale burns in the Alaska Clean Seas wave tank in Prudhoe Bay, AL;
