Oil Spills: What To Know !!!

During spring semester this year, I had to choose a topic related to my course and do a report on it. I’d always been fascinated with the whole aspect of global warming and seeing that I’m studying Petroleum Engineering and the whole process of production is a major contributing factor to global warming, I landed on the effects of oil production on the environment.

Oil spills have had some devastating effects on the environment and the damages to wildlife have been equally devastating. Every time a spill happens there are animals that are displaced from their natural habitats - that is if they’re not killed first. As a result of all these disasters, there is a dire need for effective ways to clean up.

HOW DO OIL SPILLS HAPPEN ???

So there are different ways that an oil spill can happen. At oil rigs where the oil is being extracted from below the sea beds. During drilling, a pipe might burst because of too much pressure or some freak accident which will cause leakage. This causes so much harm because if the leakage in the pipes is close to the sea bed where there are loads of marine animals, there is a greater chance that they could die. Also, after the oil has been extracted, there are these huge ships called tankers which are used to transport the oil. Now anything can happen at sea. There might be a storm or a similar incident like what happened to The Titanic might happen where the tanker might collide with an iceberg causing large amounts of oil to spill.

Over the years, the number of oil spills happening around the world has reduced dramatically. Because the number of spills during the late 70's to the late 80's was rather substantial, international bodies had to put measures in place that would reduce the risk of an oil spill. There wasn’t much regulation during those days and when it did happen, the accountability of the oil companies that were involved was poor, barely paying fines in legal battles that went on forever. With the growing problem of global warming and several animals and plants going extinct there was a desperate need for such measures to be put in place. Gladly due to regulations and invention of new technology, the number of incidents of spills have reduced according to a report by the INTERNATIONAL TANKER OWNERS POLLUTION FEDERATION (ITOPF).

WHAT AFFECTS THE RESPONSE PATTERNS ?

When an oil spill happens, there is a need for an urgent response because the longer it takes, the more is done to the environment. For this reason most companies have strategies in place and are part of response agencies. Planning makes for less harm to the environment because the response time is shorter. When the spill happens, the companies and agencies need to determine their response and in doing this, several things are to be considered, including:

• The environment where the spill occurred. If the oil spilled on land, it is usually easier to deal with because, well - its accessible and machines can be brought to the area to clean it up, but if the spill happens in parts of the sea that’s far from coastlines then its harder to deal with for obvious reasons.

• The quantity of oil spilled. If you were in the kitchen and a glass of water spilled you’d most likely use a towel to wipe it up with no stress, but if a pipe burst in the kitchen spraying water all over the place it’d be harder to deal with because you’ll first have to deal with the pipe and then the water spilled.

• The time of the year. If for example the oil spilled during the winter months it would be hard to coordinate clean up because conditions are harsh and since a bulk of most clean-up methods must be carried out with human supervision, you don’t expect someone to stay out in the cold for long hours on end. They’ll get sick and the process will slow down.

• The type of oil. There are different types of oil including the most obvious ones of petrol, diesel and kerosene which are relatively easy to take care of because they are light. But then there are heavier fractions like bitumen (the black sticky thing used to make roads), jet fuel and the likes. But the problem is that when the oil is extracted, it is the unrefined stuff and its black and sticky. On a normal basis oil will float on water but this isn’t always the case because the one being extracted is sticky and gooey which is difficult to deal with.

• The rate of spillage. First off if the amount being spilled is a lot, it makes it harder to handle because the spill needs to be contained first before the clean up can start otherwise it’s a fools errand and secondly if the rate of spillage increases then the code of clean-up needs to be tweaked.

• Proximity to populated areas. If the spill occurs near an area populated either by humans or animals, there should be a shorter response time because it restricts activities of residents in that area and personally I think it should be handled with more urgency if the area is populated with animals because they can’t protect themselves and the more time it takes for clean-up to happen the higher the chances that they will die. There have been instances of a whole species of fish being wiped out because of an oil spill.

So it is usually after all these factors have been considered that the appropriate mode of clean-up can be decided upon. The most common and effective ways of oil clean up techniques are:

• Bioremediation

• In-situ Burning

• Dispersants

• Skimming

• Sorbents

• Berms and Trenches

Now that I've given you a general overview on the basics of oil spills, there is still quite a bit to be known and I will be doing two science explained posts on oil spill clean-up methods……KEEP AN EYE OUT !!!!