MODELING DEEPWATER OIL SPILLS WITH NEAR FIELD AND FAR FIELD MODELS

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 725-730
Author(s):  
Zhen-Gang Ji ◽  
Walter R. Johnson ◽  
Charles F. Marshall ◽  
James M. Price

ABSTRACT As a Federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), the Minerals Management Service (MMS) maintains a leasing program for commercial oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Oil and gas activities in deep water (areas deeper than 340 meters) have proceeded at an unprecedented rate, and have led to concerns regarding the accidental release of oil near the seafloor. As production increases, the potential for an oil/gas spill increases. In addition to the environmental impacts of the oil spilled, major concerns from a deepwater oil/gas spill include fire, toxic hazard to the people working on the surface installations, and loss of buoyancy by ships and any floating installations. Oil and natural gas releases in deep water behave much differently than in shallow water, primarily due to density stratification, high pressures, and low temperatures. It is important to know whether oil will surface and if so, where, when, and how thick the oil slick will be. To meet these new challenges, spill response plans need to be upgraded. An important component of such a plan would be a model to simulate the behavior of oil and gasses accidentally released in deep water. This has significant implications for environmental impact assessment, oil-spill cleanup, contingency planning, and source tracing. The MMS uses the Clarkson Deepwater Oil and Gas Blowout (CDOG) plume model to simulate the behavior of oil and gas accidentally released in deepwater areas. The CDOG model is a near field model. In addition, MMS uses an adaptation of the Princeton Ocean Model called the Princeton Regional Ocean Forecast and Hindcast System for the Gulf of Mexico (PROFS-GOM). This model is a far field model and is employed to provide three dimensional current, temperature, and salinity data to the CDOG model. The PROFS-GOM model and the CDOG model are used to simulate deepwater oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Modeling results indicate that the two models can provide important information on the behavior of oil spills in deepwater and assist MMS in estimating the associated environmental risks. Ultimately, this information will be used in the pertinent environmental impact assessments MMS performs and in the development of deepwater oil-spill response plans.

1979 ◽  
Vol 1979 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-244
Author(s):  
E. D. Shipman

ABSTRACT Clean Gulf Associates, an organization representing approximately 60 oil and gas operators and 99% of the production in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico, continues to improve and add to its stockpile of equipment for containment and cleanup of oil spills. A separate Cost Participation Area off the Texas Coast was established over two years ago; material and equipment is stockpiled and available at two bases on the Texas coast. Additions to the equipment stockpile include a versatile radio communication system designed for use during cleanup operations, and a new self-propelled skimmer for use in shallow-water cleanup operations. During the past year, approximately 50 training sessions on oil spill containment and cleanup with CGA equipment were held.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 323-330
Author(s):  
Philip J. W. Roberts

The results of far field modeling of the wastefield formed by the Sand Island, Honolulu, ocean outfall are presented. A far field model, FRFIELD, was coupled to a near field model, NRFIELD. The input data for the models were long time series of oceanographic observations over the whole water column including currents measured by Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers and density stratification measured by thermistor strings. Thousands of simulations were made to predict the statistical variation of wastefield properties around the diffuser. It was shown that the visitation frequency of the wastefield decreases rapidly with distance from the diffuser. The spatial variation of minimum and harmonic average dilutions was also predicted. Average dilution increases rapidly with distance. It is concluded that any impact of the discharge will be confined to a relatively small area around the diffuser and beach impacts are not likely to be significant.


2021 ◽  
pp. 108325
Author(s):  
Darpan Das ◽  
Emma Moynihan ◽  
Mark Nicas ◽  
Eric D. McCollum ◽  
Salahuddin Ahmed ◽  
...  

1996 ◽  
Vol 465 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Gylling ◽  
L. Romero ◽  
L. Moreno ◽  
I. Neretnieks

ABSTRACTA coupled model concept which may be used for performance assessment of a nuclear repository is presented. The tool is developed by integration of two models, one near field and one far field model. A compartment model, NUCTRAN, is used to calculate the near field release from a damaged canister. The far field transport through fractured rock is simulated by using CHAN3D, based on a three-dimensional stochastic channel network concept. The near field release depends on the local hydraulic properties of the far field. The transport in the far field in turn depends on where the damaged canister(s) is located. The very large heterogeneities in the rock mass makes it necessary to study both the near field release properties and the location of release at the same time. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the coupled model concept it is applied on a hypothetical repository located at the Hard Rock Laboratory in Äspö, Sweden. Two main items were studied; the location of a damaged canister in relation to fracture zones and the barrier function of the host rock. In the study of the near field rock as a transport barrier the effect of different tunnel excavation methods which may influence the damage level of the rock around the tunnel was addressed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengcheng Gu ◽  
Hua Li ◽  
Francisco Haces-Fernandez

Abstract Offshore oil and gas platforms use gas turbine with natural gas or fuel diesel for their high demand of power. Due to the declining amount of gas available, high carbon footprint, increasing cost of fuel and inefficient operating, alternative energy options are necessary and imminent. Most offshore oil and gas platforms locate in deep water surrounded by huge amount of energetic wave resources, hence, the feasibility of supplying offshore oil facilities electricity by hybrid wave and wind energy farms based on daily energy power production instead of annual average was conducted in this project. The hybrid energy farm was modeled and validated by applying meteorological data in Gulf of Mexico area from WaveWatch III system. With the hindcast wave and wind condition data from 1979 to 2019, daily energy generation of the hybrid energy farm was estimated. Meantime, the feasibility of suppling offshore oil and gas facilities by the proposed combined hybrid farm was assessed. The project optimized the configuration of the hybrid wave and wind energy farm to satisfy offshore oil and gas platform demands and reduce the variation of power generation, so that it may be feasibility to gradually substitute the gas turbines. Through matching the local wave and wind conditions, the project was able to maximize the power output while minimize the variation within limited ocean surface area. The project addressed the advantages of hybrid wave and wind devices, as well as theoretical prospection of wave harvesting device and wind turbine combination. To validate the proposed optimization model, a case study was explored by using Vesta V90 3MW wind turbines and Pelamis 750kW wave energy converters to supply five offshore platforms in more than 45 m deep water areas. The results indicated the possibility of bringing wave energy into large commercial operation and utilization with minor investment and environmental impact.


2021 ◽  
pp. 283-342
Author(s):  
Jason S. Link ◽  
Anthony R. Marshak

This chapter describes the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region and the major issues facing this marine fisheries ecosystem, and presents some summary statistics related to the 90 indicators of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) criteria. The region contains high numbers of marine species comprising commercially and recreationally important invertebrate (e.g., penaeid shrimp, blue crab, eastern oyster) and finfish (e.g., red snapper, grouper, red drum, pelagic sportfishes) fisheries, which contribute heavily to national landings and seafood supply. The northern GOM contains one of the nation’s largest marine economies (among the eight U.S. regional marine ecosystems), which is dependent on offshore mineral extractions, tourism, marine transportation, living marine resources (LMRs), and other ocean uses. The GOM provides critical social and economic benefits to the region and the nation, is a region with high numbers of managed species, yet exploitation of these resources and an increasing human population makes the GOM an area subject to significant natural and human stressors, including the highest number of hurricanes in the U.S. Atlantic region, large expanses of hypoxic bottom water, overfishing, and major oil spills like the 2010 DWH event.


1977 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-169
Author(s):  
W. E. Gammage ◽  
J. E. Ortloff ◽  
M. L. Teers ◽  
J. B. Caldwell

A multiline marine production riser and floating production, storage, and terminal facility may be required for economic development of oil and gas reserves in remote, deep water locations. A deep water production riser design has evolved through study, analyses, and model testing. In order to gain experience, development confidence, and improve the riser design prior to commercial application, a prototype has been built for testing as part of Exxon’s Submerged Production System offshore test in the Gulf of Mexico. This paper treats the design, manufacture, and installation of the prototype multiline marine production riser system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Li ◽  
Walter Johnson

The oil spill risk analysis (OSRA) model is a tool used by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to evaluate oil spill risks to biological, physical, and socioeconomic resources that could be exposed to oil spill contact from oil and gas leasing, exploration, or development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Using long-term hindcast winds and ocean currents, the OSRA model generates hundreds of thousands of trajectories from hypothetical oil spill locations and derives the probability of contact to these environmental resources in the U.S. OCS. This study generates probability of oil spill contact maps by initiating trajectories from hypothetical oil spill points over the entire planning areas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) OCS and tabulating the contacts over the entire waters in the GOM. Therefore, a probability of oil spill contact database that stores information of the spill points and contacts can be created for a given set of wind and current data such that the probability of oil spill contact to any environmental resources from future leasing areas can be estimated without a rerun of the OSRA model. The method can be applied to other OCS regions and help improve BOEM’s decision-making process.


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