EVALUATION OF DISPERSANTS FOR USE IN THE AZERBAIJAN REGION OF THE CASPIAN SEA

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afag Abbasova ◽  
Khabiba Bagirova ◽  
Gary Campbell ◽  
James Clark ◽  
Ronnie Gallagher ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Open marine water (salinity 30–35°/00) is the environment where dispersants are used most frequently in oil spill response. In the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, offshore oil and gas reserves are being developed in areas where salinity ranges from 10 to 12 °loo. Because salinity can affect dispersant efficacy and toxicity, the effectiveness and aquatic toxicity of six commercially available dispersants were tested using Azerbaijan crude oil, Caspian species and 12°/oo seawater. Effectiveness for the dispersants tested with Chirag crude oil and Caspian seawater ranged from 72% to 86%, using USEPA's baffled flask method. Dispersant toxicities were in the ranges: diatom (Chaetoceros tenuissimus) 72 hr EC50 (effective concentrations inhibiting growth rate by 50%) 18 to > 100 mg/l; copepod (Calanipeda aquae dulcis) 48 hr LC50 (effective concentration for immobilizing 50% test organisms) 12 to 49 mg/l; amphipod (Pontogammarus maeoticus) 48 hr LC50 (concentration lethal to 50% test organisms) 50 to > 100 mg/l. For dispersant use, the key toxicity concern is that of dispersed oil, not dispersant. Aquatic toxicity was determined for water—accommodated fractions (WAFs) of Chirag crude in Caspian seawater. Toxicity results for the WAFs were: diatom 72 hr EC50 > 10,000 mg/l nominal; copepod 48 hr LC50 3.9 mg/l; amphipod 48 hr LC50 >15 mg/l. Chirag crude was mixed with dispersant at 20:1 oil: dispersant ratio and resulting WAFs were tested for toxicity. Results were: diatom 72 hr EC50 < 18 to 208 mg/l nominal; copepod 48 hr LC50 2.1 to 37 mg/l; amphipod 48 hr LC50 20 to 89 mg/l. Dispersant and dispersed oil toxicity for Caspian species are similar to published toxicity data for marine species tested at typical ocean salinity. Prolonged exposure (24 to 96hrs.) to constant concentrations of dispersant or dispersed oil used in laboratory tests may overestimate potential field toxicity, where dilution and mixing can decrease concentrations to low ppm's within hours of application. Dispersant use decisions for any Caspian Sea oil spills will focus on net environmental benefits of moving oil into the water column where it can be quickly diluted compared to potentially greater impacts from oil reaching nearshore environments.

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 1003-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles B. Pace ◽  
James R. Clark ◽  
Gail E. Bragin

ABSTRACT Standard aquatic toxicity tests do not address real-world, spiked exposure scenarios that occur during oil spills. We evaluated differences in toxicity of physically and chemically dispersed Kuwait crude oil to mysids (Mysidopsis bahia) under continuous and spiked (half-life of 2 hours) exposure conditions. The 96-hr LC50s for physically dispersed oil were 0.78 mg/L (continuous) and >2.9 mg/L (spiked), measured as total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). Values for chemically dispersed oil were 0.98 mg/L (continuous) and 17.7 mg/L (spiked) TPH. Continuous-exposure tests may overestimate the potential for toxic effects under real-world conditions by a factor of 18 or more.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Aziz Abdel-Hassan

Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline carries oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field and condensate from Shah Deniz across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. It links Sangachal terminal on the shores of the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan marine terminal on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. In addition, crude oil from Turkmenistan continues to be transported via the pipeline. Starting in October 2013, we have also resumed transportation of some volumes of Tengiz crude oil from Kazakhstan through the BTC pipeline. The pipeline that became operational in June 2006 was built by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline company (BTC Co) operated by BP. The pipeline buried along its entire length is 1768km in total length: 443km in Azerbaijan, 249km in Georgia, and 1,076km in Turkey The Azerbaijan and Georgia sections of the pipeline are operated by BP on behalf of its shareholders in BTC Co. while the Turkish section is operated by BOTAS International Limited (BIL). The diameter of the pipeline is 42 inches throughout most of Azerbaijan and Turkey. In Georgia the pipeline diameter is 46 inches. The pipeline diameter reduces to 34-inches for the last downhill section to the Ceyhan Marine Terminal in Turkey. Throughput capacity-one million barrels per day from March 2006 to March 2009. Since March 2009 it has been expanded to 1.2 million barrels per day by using drag reducing agents (DRAs). The hypothesis of our research stems from the following questions Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Nabucco gas pipeline "to Western Europe: Is it a re-engineering of drawing lines of power in the Caucasus or is it a step that could contribute to obstructing energy corridors between East and West? The Caucasus Energy Department begins in the oil-and-gas-rich countries of the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan, located to the west of the Caspian basin, is the source of any power lines emanating from the basin. In the north, Russia wants to be the only buyer from these sources, so that it can capture sales to Western markets. However, Azerbaijan has, to date, worked with the West and Turkey to build pipelines instead of working with Russia. "Turkey, which lies to the west, is shutting down the energy department as the last stop for pipelines. On the other hand, energy experts believe that the improvement of TurkishArmenian relations should not be at the expense of the East-West energy corridor, in other words, cooperation with regard to pipelines extending from Azerbaijan to Turkey. This corridor is a critical strategic tool for Washington to reduce the Western dependence on oil and gas from the Middle East. Oil exports through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline amounted to 14.9 million tons in the first half of this year, up 2.8 percent from the same period in 2015, according to a report by Reuters. Oil exports through the pipeline, which passes through Georgia and Turkey, rose 1.5 percent in 2015 to 28.84 million tonnes. Azerbaijan exports oil through the pipeline from the oil fields of Shiraj and Jonsheli, operated by British company BP. Crude is also exported through Russia through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, through the Georgian territory by rail and through the Baku-Supsa pipeline. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are also exporting oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. These rates are expected to rise during 2016/2017.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Stanislav Aleksandrovich Pritchin

For almost three centuries, starting with the campaign of Peter the Great in 1721-1722, Russia has traditionally played a key role in the Caspian Sea. The situation changed dramatically with the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the emergence of three new regional players-Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. For Russia, this meant a significant reduction in influence in the region and the loss of control over most of the water area and the sea and its resources. In the historiography devoted to the region, the emphasis is placed on assessing the new round of geopolitical struggle, the position and interests of Western and regional powers. The author of this article provides a critical analysis of changes in Russian policy towards the Caspian Sea over the past 30 years and assesses the effectiveness of these changes. The difficult transition from the role of a dominant player in a region closed to external competitors to an open geopolitical confrontation over resources, their transportation routes, and political influence at the first stage was not in favor of Russia. Russia could not defend the principle of a condominium for joint development of hydrocarbon resources of the sea. With the active assistance of Western competitors, Russia lost its status as a monopoly transit country for oil and gas from the region. At the same time, thanks to diplomatic efforts and increased political dialogue with its neighbors in the region, Russia managed to resolve all territorial issues at sea by 2003, maintain the closed status of the sea for the military forces of third countries, and by 2018 complete work on the Convention on the international legal status of the sea, which established the principles of cooperation in the region that are important for the Russian Federation. Thus, official Moscow managed to achieve the strategic goals adapted after the collapse of the USSR by using the traditional strengths of its foreign policy and consolidate its status as the most influential player in the region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
NABIEVA VICTORIA V. ◽  
◽  
SEREBRYAKOV ANDREY O. ◽  
SEREBRYAKOV OLEG I. ◽  
◽  
...  

Hydrogeological conditions of reservoir waters of oil and gas fields in the northern water area of the Caspian Sea characterize the geological features of the structure of the Northern Caspian shelf, as well as the thermodynamic parameters of the exploitation of productive deposits, production and transportation of oil and gas. Reservoir waters contain water-soluble gases. According to the size of mineralization, the ratio of the main components of the salt composition, as well as the presence of iodine and bromine, reservoir waters can be attributed to a relatively "young" genetic age, subject to secondary geochemical processes of changing the salt composition in interaction with "secondary" migrated hydrocarbons. The physical and chemical properties of reservoir waters are determined by PVT analysis technologies. Hydrogeological and geochemical studies of compatibility with reservoir waters of marine waters injected to maintain reservoir pressures (PPD) during the development of offshore fields in order to increase the oil recovery coefficient (KIN) indicate the absence of colmating secondary sedimentation in mixtures of natural and man-made waters.


1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.J. Leinonen ◽  
D. Mackay

Abstract Mathematical models are presented which quantify the processes of evaporation and dissolution of components of crude oil in three situations: a spill on water, a spill on ice, and a spill under ice cover in which the oil lies between the water and ice phases. Constant spill area is assumed. The evaporation flux is calculated using a mass transfer coefficient based on windspeed and spill dimensions. The dissolution flux can be calculated from two models, a mass transfer coefficient approach and an eddy diffusivity approach involving the integration of a set of partial differential equations in depth and time. The selection of model parameters is discussed. For the three physical situations, using a synthetic crude oil, results are presented giving the relative rates of evaporation and dissolution and the aqueous phase concentration of selected hydrocarbons. The implications of the results for clean-up technology and aquatic toxicity are discussed, particularly with regard to spills under ice.


2001 ◽  
Vol 2001 (2) ◽  
pp. 1237-1241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana L. Wetzel ◽  
Edward S. Van Fleet

ABSTRACT The present study was conducted to assess the toxicity of the water-accommodated fraction (WAF) and the chemically enhanced WAF (CE-WAF) of selected crude oils for both weathered and fresh oil. Test organisms included two standard test species, Mysidopsis bahia and Menidia beryllina, and a commercially important Florida marine fish, Sciaenops ocellatus. Tests ascertaining LC50 values were conducted under continuous exposure and spiked (declining exposure using flow-through toxicity chambers) conditions using Venezuelan Crude Oil (VCO), Prudhoe Bay Crude Oil (PBCO), and COREXIT® 9500 dispersant on the above species. Data suggest that the dispersant is less toxic than the WAF and CE-WAF of the tested crude oils. The toxicity of the CE-WAF of fresh VCO is similar to that of other oils under continuous exposure conditions, but may be slightly more toxic to some species under spiked exposure conditions. The CE-WAF of fresh VCO appears to be less toxic than the corresponding WAF for M. bahia, M. beryllina, and S. ocellatus. Fresh VCO appears to be much more toxic to M. bahia and M. beryllina than weathered VCO in spiked exposure tests for both the WAF and CE-WAF. The WAF of PBCO is apparently less toxic to the test organisms than the corresponding WAF of fresh VCO. The LC50 values of M. bahia with CE-WAF fractions of both fresh VCO and PBCO are similar, while the same PBCO CE-WAF fraction is less toxic for M. beryllina than fresh VCO CE-WAF. The toxicity of oils and dispersants were lowest in the spiked exposure weathered oil tests, which may be most representative of an oil spill under natural environmental conditions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim Rezvov ◽  
Peter Zavialov ◽  
Mikhail Krinitskiy

<p>The Caspian Sea is the largest inland water body on the Earth and a unique object for analysis. It is of great importance for the socioeconomic development of bordering countries. Unique fish resources and oil and gas fields are projected to provide a significant source of food and economic prosperity to the Caspian region, as well as energy to many parts of the world. National and transnational oil and gas corporations are involved in the utilization of the commercially attractive Caspian natural resources. The Caspian Sea has been influenced by climate change and anthropogenic disturbance during recent decades, yet the scientific understanding of this water body remains poor. Climatic variability of water circulation in the Caspian Sea remains unclear. Traditionally, currents in the Caspian Sea have been investigated by numerical methods. Instrumental observations of the currents in the Caspian Sea are mostly carried out in the shelf zone. Available data cover very short periods and reflect variability only in synoptic and higher frequency of the sea dynamics. In this work, water velocity data based on SeaHorse equipment is under consideration. Three stations were in northern Caspian, area adjacent to Jayik (Ural) River delta. In both cases, the instruments were deployed in 2016 and 2017 at the point 46.782N, 51.384E, depth about 3 m. In this work, we will present the preliminary results of our study of the field observations we gathered in these points. We also present the analysis of the potential drivers for the spatial and temporal patterns of the measured currents velocity.</p>


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