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Responding to an Arctic offshore spill New report overviews the status of Arctic offshore oil spill response research and makes recommendations for further research needs Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Motivated by a heightened interest in Arctic oil development and an increase in Arctic shipping, the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have published a report documenting research efforts in the controversial arena of Arctic offshore oil spill prevention and response. Among other reasons for publishing the report, the authors cite the challenges that Shell has encountered in its Alaska outer continental shelf exploration program.
“Because oil spill preparedness is a nuanced issue, where the biases of supporters and detractors sometimes lead to selective highlighting, which may confuse the public, we try to present here an unbiased inventory of research, as well as some impartial recommendations on the topic,” the authors say in the introductory section of the report. “Some praised Shell’s significant efforts and safety plans, but others raised questions about the feasibility of oil spill response in remote regions. Spills in ice-infested waters and deployment of cleanup technologies pose many challenges.”
Much research But much research has and is being conducted into oil spills in Arctic waters — the report’s authors have compiled an inventory of 203 research projects covering a wide variety of topics including the fate and behavior of oil; environmental impacts; oil detection and tracking; spill mitigation; and field demonstrations of response techniques.
The report itself provides insights into which organizations are funding or conducting research into topics relating to Arctic offshore oil spills. And the report overviews the type of research that each organization is involved in.
The considerable body of research work that has been done and continues to take place provides a credible foundation for applied research and engineering to minimize accident risks and improve the techniques used for spill response, the report says.
“The breadth and value of this body of knowledge may be underappreciated by the general public and, if so, greater efforts need to be made to communicate the value of this information to the layperson and to media representatives,” the report says.
Federal government The U.S. government is a major player in oil spill response related research.
The U.S. Department of the Interior through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as through the now-defunct Minerals Management Service and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Regulatory Enforcement, has been both sponsoring and conducting research on various topics of relevance to offshore Arctic oil spills. Some research projects are jointly funded by various combinations of the federal government, state government, academia, private industry and foreign governments, the report says.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, for example, conducts environmental reviews in connection with oil and gas leasing, as well as sponsoring a variety of environmental research programs relating to the Arctic seas, the report says. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has a program that funds research into improving the technologies used for oil spill response — the agency’s Ohmsett facility in New Jersey has a large saltwater tank with wave-making capabilities, to test oil spill containment and clean up equipment and techniques.
The U.S. Geological Survey has conducted a study to identify gaps in scientific knowledge of the Arctic outer continental shelf.
NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, has oil spill preparedness, response and restoration responsibilities under the terms of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 — NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, or OR&R, is the lead science adviser to the U.S. Coast Guard during oil spill response operations in the Alaska offshore and has developed a web-based tool to assist responders, the report says.
OR&R collects baseline environmental data for the identification of environmental risks and funds a partnership with the University of New Hampshire for oil spill research. One of the organizations within this partnership participated in a Norway-based joint industry program known as SINTEF for Arctic marine oil spill response research.
However, the report points out an apparent government funding anomaly, in that NOAA does not receive direct appropriations from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the fund established for oil spill research under the Oil Pollution Act.
Department of Defense The U.S. Department of Defense, through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, maintains the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, or CRREL. Research conducted at CRREL has included investigations into oil spills in ice-covered waters.
The Department of Defense also has an emergency ship salvage system, including oil skimming systems located at the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Anchorage.
The U.S. Coast Guard represents the federal government in any response to an offshore oil spill. The Coast Guard has a research center in Connecticut that is testing new technologies and techniques for cold weather oil recovery, the report says. The center has completed two oil-in-ice demonstrations to evaluate cold weather oil response capabilities and plans a further demonstration in Alaska, the report says.
In April 2012 the Coast Guard conducted a workshop to discuss various Arctic offshore issues and in May, prior to Shell’s summer drilling program, participated in a joint oil spill tabletop exercise with Shell, several federal agencies and the State of Alaska.
ICCOPR The Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution research, or ICCOPR, established under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and chaired by the Coast Guard, coordinates research efforts between different federal agencies. And the National Research Council is coordinating a study into responding to oil spills in Arctic environments.
The Prince William Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute, a nonprofit organization authorized through the Oil Pollution Act, supports oil spill research, including research into oil spills under sea ice, the report says.
The State of Alaska, through its Department of Environmental Conservation, has conducted an oil spill response program since the 1970s and has been sponsoring oil spill research in Alaska.
The Canadian government also sponsors some substantial Arctic oil spill research programs, such as research coordinated by the Center for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research, and research conducted by Environment Canada.
Private industry Private industry is also involved in Arctic offshore oil spill research. For example Alaska Clean Seas, the oil industry oil spill cooperative on the Alaska North Slope, participates in research to improve the equipment needed to respond to Arctic oil spills. In partnership with CRREL, the cooperative is designing an oil and ice testing tank for use at Prudhoe Bay, the report says.
Oil companies operating in the Arctic and private consultancies conduct their own oil spill research, as well as participating with multiple companies and government agencies in joint industry programs. Statoil completed a large Arctic oil spill research program in 2010.
The SINTEF joint industry program, based in Norway and conducted between 2006 and 2009, carried out lab tests and large-scale field experiments to evaluate the fate of oil spilled in Arctic waters and to test various means of responding to an Arctic spill.
In early 2012 nine oil companies established another program called the Arctic Oil Spill Response Technology-Joint Industry Program. Managed by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, this program is investigating many aspects of Arctic oil spills, including oil detection, the fate of spilled oil, response technologies and environmental impacts.
Recommendations While acknowledging the extensive existing body of knowledge on Arctic oil spill prevention and response, the report makes a number of recommendations for areas where it says further investigation is warranted.
In terms of preparedness for the possibility of an Arctic offshore oil spill, there is a need for improved techniques for oil detection and mapping, independent of sea ice conditions; oil spill responders need field training in response techniques; and research programs need to place more emphasis on controlling the source of a potential oil spill, including methods for well capping and containment, the report says. A database containing data gleaned from actual Arctic oil spills would help in oil spill prevention planning and oil spill response improvements.
In terms of oil spill response techniques, the performance of mechanical oil recovery systems deployed in ice-infested waters needs improvement. The use of in-situ burning of oil and the use of chemical oil herders need further research in Arctic conditions. The development of robots and remotely operated vehicles for oil spill response could be very helpful for the Arctic offshore. Improved tools are needed to delineate oil trapped under ice, and methods for the recovery of oil trapped in this way need to be tested. The effectiveness of oil dispersants in Arctic conditions also needs evaluation.
Assessing impacts And in terms of dealing with the effects of oil spilled into the Arctic environment, the environmental impacts of in-situ burning need to be quantified, and the effects of dispersed oil on the Arctic ecosystems need to be assessed. The possible impacts of oil spills on areas of the Arctic offshore that have particular environmental sensitivity need to be evaluated and potential oil cleanup techniques for these areas need to be investigated. Additional research is needed into the potential impacts of chemical oil herders on human health, the report says.
The report also recommends some general areas for Arctic offshore oil spill research, including an analysis of “response gaps,” the times when oil spill response is not feasible because of factors such as weather and sea ice. Field experiments, using local oil samples, are needed in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, to improve response tactics and train personnel. And there is a need for a database of Arctic response equipment, the report says.
And the report argues for a significant increase in government research funding. Although the U.S. government has sponsored oil spill research, government funding of $164 million between 2010 and 2011 for this research fell far below what the government had earned from Arctic outer continental shelf lease sales, the report says.
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