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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
February 2009

Vol. 14, No. 8 Week of February 22, 2009

Our Arctic Neighbors: Group analyzes Barents Sea oil spill response

Workshop participants make 22 recommendations to improve Norwegian-Russian cooperation in disputed area after an incident

Sarah Hurst

For Petroleum News

In near-zero visibility, a tanker maneuvers to avoid a fishing vessel near the disputed boundary between Russia and Norway in the Barents Sea. A collision occurs with damage to both vessels, and the tanker releases 25,000 barrels of crude oil into the sea; the fishing vessel sinks. This is one of the scenarios analyzed in a report by the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire called “Opening the Arctic Seas: Envisioning Disasters and Framing Solutions.”

The report, published in January, details the results of a workshop that was held in March 2008. Some of the other scenarios were based in Alaska and Canadian waters. Participants who discussed the Barents Sea incident included representatives of Alaska Clean Seas, the Norwegian Coastal Administration, the Polar Environmental Center, the Coastal Response Research Center, the Saami Council and the U.S. Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab.

Jurisdiction is not clear because the incident occurred in a disputed area, the report says. Various Norwegian and Russian government agencies would attempt to coordinate a rescue that would also involve private and voluntary organizations. The tanker would have to be towed to a port of refuge to avoid sinking.

“The damaged vessel will likely continue to spill oil while being towed,” the report says. “The best response scenario involves stationing a skimmer vessel behind the vessel as it is towed. … Due to prevailing winds, the spill will most likely impact the Russian coastline more than the Norwegian one. Responders will place a containment boom around the vessel once in port.”

Different priorities

There are currently no places of refuge in the region that would accept a damaged ship, the report says. Also, the environmental response could be hampered by differing Norwegian and Russian prioritization schemes.

“While Norwegian agencies employ a relatively standard system for determining environmental priorities, Russian environmental agencies use varied approaches to identify them,” the report says. “This disparity could cause confusion during a joint response. Cultural resources are not well defined, and therefore important sites may not receive the protection they deserve.”

Nautical charts for the region have not been updated in many years, with some dating back as far as the 1950s, the report says.

“There is also a general lack of understanding of the behavior of oil and alternative response measures in cold water,” it continues. “In many cases, response measures that work well in temperate environments may work poorly, or not at all, in the Arctic, potentially resulting in a less than optimal environmental response.”

The workshop group made 22 recommendations to improve the response to this incident. These included standardizing environmental priorities and sensitivity mapping across the Arctic; adopting an ecosystem-based approach to protecting the Barents Sea from pollution; conducting an Arctic oil and gas risk assessment similar in structure to the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment; creating an oil spill response plan for the entire Arctic; identifying potential ports of refuge; and increasing spill response equipment and support vessel availability in the Arctic.






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