scholarly journals Ongoing Research on Herding Agents for In Situ Burning in Arctic Waters: Laboratory and Test Tank Studies on Windows-of-Opportunity

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 2915-2934
Author(s):  
Ian Buist ◽  
David Cooper ◽  
Ken Trudel ◽  
Len Zabilansky ◽  
Janne Fritt-Rasmussen

ABSTRACT Researching the use of herding agents to contain and thicken oil slicks for in situ burning in Arctic waters continues under the auspices of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) Arctic Oil Spill Response Technology-Joint Industry Programme. In 2014/2015 laboratory and test tank studies were conducted on defining potentials for effective herder use. The objective of these experiments was to determine the window-of-opportunity for two commercially available herders (ThickSlick 6535 and OP 40) to contract slicks of weathered oils to ignitable thicknesses. The experiments involved a range of crude oils that were quantitatively evaporated and emulsified (ANS, Endicott, Grane and Terra Nova). Small and medium-scale herding experiments (1-m2 quiescent pans, Dynamic Film Performance tests on a Rocking Shaker, 10-m2 quiescent pools and tests in an indoor wind/wave tank) were carried out at the SL Ross laboratory in Ottawa, ON. Larger-scale tests were conducted in 28.5-m2 quiescent refrigerated pools at the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, NH. The purpose of these experiments was to determine at what point (defined by oil type, evaporation and emulsion water) the herders could no longer contract the slicks to an ignitable thickness in cold ice-free water and slush ice. Some laboratory tests involved burning the herded slicks under a fume hood.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 2976-2995 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne Fritt-Rasmussen ◽  
Kim Gustavson ◽  
Susse Wegeberg ◽  
Eva Friis Møller ◽  
Rasmus Dyrmose Nørregaard ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Research on the fate and effects of herding agents used to contain and thicken oil slicks for in situ burning in Arctic waters continues under the auspices of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers Arctic Oil Spill Response Technology – Joint Industry Program (JIP). In 2014/2015 laboratory studies were conducted on the fate and effects of herders. The purpose of the studies was to improve the knowledge base used to evaluate the environmental risk of using herders in connection with in situ burning for oil spill response in Arctic seas. Two herding agents were studied (OP 40 and ThickSlick 6535). Laboratory-scale herding and burning experiments were carried out for investigating the physical fate of the two herders during combustion of Alaska North Slope and Grane crude oils (fresh and emulsified). The results showed that after burning, the herder was mainly found on the water surface, and only small concentrations of herders were found in the water column (0.2–22.8 mg/L). The inherent properties of herders in relation to toxicity and bioaccumulation on the high Arctic copepods (Calanus hyperboreus), as well as the biodegradability of herders were studied under arctic conditions. The results indicated that a distinct mortality was seen at the highest test concentrations of the herders. However, the concentration of herders required to produce acute toxicity in the laboratory was approximately three orders of magnitude higher than the concentrations measured in the water column when herders were used to conduct an in situ burn in the laboratory. OP-40 might bio-accumulate whereas TS6535 might not. TS6535 was mostly degraded within 7 days, whereas the degradation of OP-40 was insignificant over 28 days. Since herders are mainly considered as a surface active chemical compound, the potential impacts of herders on Arctic seabird feathers (from legally hunted Thick-Billed Murre and Common Eider) were investigated. Different dosages of herders were tested; high dosages that might be present just after the application of the herder and low dosages (approximately monolayers) likely to occur for a significant time and distance from the operations. Low dosages corresponding to approximately monolayers of OP-40 and TS6535 did not cause feathers to sink; however they did absorb more water than the controls. The high dosages caused measured damages to the feather microstructure. Finally, laboratory burning experiments were carried out to determine if there was a difference in the composition of smoke plumes from mechanically contained burns versus herded oil burns. Herder was not measured in the smoke plumes, and there were no other noticeable differences in combustion between the two methods of containment (herder vs. metal ring).


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 601
Author(s):  
Chris Hawkes

The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) is a global forum in which member companies identify and share best practices to achieve improvements in areas such as health, safety, the environment, security, social responsibility and operations. IOGP members collectively produce 40% of the world’s oil and gas. IOGP has been collecting annual safety data from its members since 1985: this database has grown to be the largest in the oil and gas industry, representing 2999 million workhours and operations in 104 countries in 2017. Having this large database of information and standardised reporting allows trending and analysis on a scale that is not possible for any individual member company. This is particularly true for deriving trends for fatal, and major process safety events that individual companies may only see infrequently. In the 5 years leading up to 2015 there were 85 fatalities reported by IOGP members per year on average, but none of these incidents were ‘new’ and we recognise the causes of most of them. Started in 2016, after 2 consecutive years of an increase in the fatal accident rate, IOGP’s Project Safira aims to provide clear solutions to prevent fatalities due to process safety events, aviation incidents and motor vehicle crashes. A fourth project area is industry wide implementation of a single, common, standardised set of ‘Life-Saving Rules’. We want to make sure that never again shall we read of a fatal incident and feel like we have seen it before. We also want to learn together, as the global industry that we are, and eliminate fatalities from occurring.


Author(s):  
Michael Ziccardi ◽  
J.D. Bergeron ◽  
B. Louise Chilvers ◽  
Adam Grogan ◽  
Charlie Hebert ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In 2015, an ambitious wildlife response preparedness project was initiated; funded as part of the post-Macondo IPIECA-IOGP (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP). The Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS) Project, which involved 11 leading wildlife response organizations from seven countries, aimed to develop an international framework for oiled wildlife response as well as encourage the further development of wildlife response preparedness by industry and other stakeholders. This paper will provide an overview and assessment of the key outcomes of both the JIP-funded phase of the project (2015-16; development of internationally agreed standards and common operating procedures) and the second industry-funded phase (2017-18; focused on response readiness) in order to provide key background information to support the movement towards operationalizing the system.


Author(s):  
R. Santner ◽  
M. Cramer

ABSTRACT In light of the Deepwater Horizon accident, the oil and gas industry has undertaken various national and global initiatives to advance our knowledge, understanding and approach to oil spill preparedness and response. Notable amongst these, are the IPIECAIOGP (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) and the American Petroleum Institute's Joint Industry Task Force (APIJITF). These alone represent million dollars of investment and the collective contribution of hundreds of subject matter experts from around the world. The above two initiatives have produced numerous technical reports, good practice guides and recommended practices that have offered significant advances in industry's oil spill preparedness and response capabilities. Additionally, the various research projects conducted primarily by API have greatly enhanced the understanding of the efficacy and fate and effects of selected response options with a focus on subsea dispersant injection. This paper provides an overview and assessment of the key outcomes of these programs as well as highlighting some of the key breakthrough projects including spill impact mitigation assessment (SIMA), incident management, tiered provision of response capability, wildlife response and dispersants. The authors also describe briefly how the industry has continued this legacy through ongoing API and IPIECA/IOGP programs, together with a brief exploration of the full extent of value which may be derived from these kinds of initiatives.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-697
Author(s):  
O.V. Shimko

Subject. The study analyzes generally accepted approaches to assessing the value of companies on the basis of financial statement data of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, Devon Energy, Anadarko Petroleum, EOG Resources, Apache, Marathon Oil, Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy, Husky Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom, Rosneft, LUKOIL, and others, for 1999—2018. Objectives. The aim is to determine the specifics of using the methods of cost, DFC, and comparative approaches to assessing the value of share capital of oil and gas companies. Methods. The study employs methods of statistical analysis and generalization of materials of scientific articles and official annual reports on the results of financial and economic activities of the largest public oil and gas corporations. Results. Based on the results of a comprehensive analysis, I identified advantages and disadvantages of standard approaches to assessing the value of oil and gas producers. Conclusions. The paper describes pros and cons of the said approaches. For instance, the cost approach is acceptable for assessing the minimum cost of small companies in the industry. The DFC-based approach complicates the reliability of medium-term forecasts for oil prices due to fluctuations in oil prices inherent in the industry, on which the net profit and free cash flow of companies depend to a large extent. The comparative approach enables to quickly determine the range of possible value of the corporation based on transactions data and current market situation.


Author(s):  
Paul Stevens

This chapter is concerned with the role of oil and gas in the economic development of the global economy. It focuses on the context in which established and newer oil and gas producers in developing countries must frame their policies to optimize the benefits of such resources. It outlines a history of the issue over the last twenty-five years. It considers oil and gas as factor inputs, their role in global trade, the role of oil prices in the macroeconomy and the impact of the geopolitics of oil and gas. It then considers various conventional views of the future of oil and gas in the primary energy mix. Finally, it challenges the drivers behind these conventional views of the future with an emphasis on why they may prove to be different from what is expected and how this may change the context in which producers must frame their policy responses.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4570
Author(s):  
Aman Turakhanov ◽  
Albina Tsyshkova ◽  
Elena Mukhina ◽  
Evgeny Popov ◽  
Darya Kalacheva ◽  
...  

In situ shale or kerogen oil production is a promising approach to developing vast oil shale resources and increasing world energy demand. In this study, cyclic subcritical water injection in oil shale was investigated in laboratory conditions as a method for in situ oil shale retorting. Fifteen non-extracted oil shale samples from Bazhenov Formation in Russia (98 °C and 23.5 MPa reservoir conditions) were hydrothermally treated at 350 °C and in a 25 MPa semi-open system during 50 h in the cyclic regime. The influence of the artificial maturation on geochemical parameters, elastic and microstructural properties was studied. Rock-Eval pyrolysis of non-extracted and extracted oil shale samples before and after hydrothermal exposure and SARA analysis were employed to analyze bitumen and kerogen transformation to mobile hydrocarbons and immobile char. X-ray computed microtomography (XMT) was performed to characterize the microstructural properties of pore space. The results demonstrated significant porosity, specific pore surface area increase, and the appearance of microfractures in organic-rich layers. Acoustic measurements were carried out to estimate the alteration of elastic properties due to hydrothermal treatment. Both Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio decreased due to kerogen transformation to heavy oil and bitumen, which remain trapped before further oil and gas generation, and expulsion occurs. Ultimately, a developed kinetic model was applied to match kerogen and bitumen transformation with liquid and gas hydrocarbons production. The nonlinear least-squares optimization problem was solved during the integration of the system of differential equations to match produced hydrocarbons with pyrolysis derived kerogen and bitumen decomposition.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 557
Author(s):  
Barry A. Goldstein

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence (Adams 1770). Some people unfamiliar with upstream petroleum operations, some enterprises keen to sustain uncontested land use, and some people against the use of fossil fuels have and will voice opposition to land access for oil and gas exploration and production. Social and economic concerns have also arisen with Australian domestic gas prices tending towards parity with netbacks from liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. No doubt, natural gas, LNG and crude-oil prices will vary with local-to-international supply-side and demand-side competition. Hence, well run Australian oil and gas producers deploy stress-tested exploration, delineation and development budgets. With these challenges in mind, successive governments in South Australia have implemented leading-practice legislation, regulation, policies and programs to simultaneously gain and sustain trust with the public and investors with regard to land access for trustworthy oil and gas operations. South Australia’s most recent initiatives to foster reserve growth through welcomed investment in responsible oil and gas operations include the following: a Roundtable for Oil and Gas; evergreen answers to frequently asked questions, grouped retention licences that accelerate investment in the best of play trends; the Plan for ACcelerating Exploration (PACE) Gas Program; and the Oil and Gas Royalty Return Program. Intended and actual outcomes from these initiatives are addressed in this extended abstract.


2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Legendre ◽  
Richard B Rivkin ◽  
Nianzhi Jiao

Abstract This “Food for Thought” article examines the potential uses of several novel scientific and technological developments, which are currently available or being developed, to significantly advance or supplement existing experimental approaches to study water-column biogeochemical processes (WCB-processes). After examining the complementary roles of observation, experiments and numerical models to study WCB-processes, we focus on the main experimental approaches of free-water in situ experiments, and at-sea and on-land meso- and macrocosms. We identify some of the incompletely resolved aspects of marine WCB-processes, and explore advanced experimental approaches that could be used to reduce their uncertainties. We examine three such approaches: free-water experiments of lengthened duration using bioArgo floats and gliders, at-sea mesocosms deployed several 100s m below the sea-surface using new biogeochemical sensors, and 50 m-tall on-land macrocosms. These approaches could lead to significant progress in concepts related to marine WCB-processes.


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