Mechanical Containment and Recovery

The Minerals Management Service and Conservation and Protection Agency, Environment Canada, initiated open ocean oil spill response equipment performance evaluations in 1984. The objective of this study was to develop a nonpolluting and cost-effective testing procedure. This standardized testing would provide a predictive capability for the behavior of each piece of equipment in a range of sea states. This standardized test procedure could be used to approve specific pieces of equipment for different lease areas.

The objective was to develop and verify an innovative test procedure for measuring the performance of offshore oil spill response equipment at sea, in the presence of an intentional oil spill. This evaluation was designed to verify the accuracy and reliability of a new nonpolluting and cost effective test procedure developed by Mason and Hanger under funding of the Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Test Tank (OHMSETT), Interagency Technical Committee (OTIC).

As oil and gas activities move into deeper and more distant waters, the use of conventional spilled-oil recovery equipment requires further analysis. The prospects are attractive for using large, self-contained collection ships which can deploy subsea collectors over blowing wellheads while remaining on station in heavy weather, recovering oil, and separating out water. An engineering concept and cost analysis of such a system was performed.

The objective was an engineering concept analysis of the effectiveness of a large self-contained oil spill collection ship capable of deploying large skimming booms in the proximity of a blowing oil well. The ship would remain on station in heavy weather, separating large quantities of water from collected oil and storing 2 to 3 weeks of received oil before transferring the oil to another tanker at sea. This type of system is considered particularly applicable to offshore oil and gas activities which are in deeper and more distant waters.