Icy oil spill easier to clean, scientists say
Scientists funded by Shell and six other oil companies say that cleaning up oil spills in Arctic ice is in many respects easier than cleaning it from open water. This research conflicts with conventional wisdom.
In a presentation of the research in Anchorage, Alaska, on Tuesday the scientists said that oil spilled in open water tends to spread out quickly over large areas and contaminate the shoreline. In contrast, recent testing in the Barents Sea above northern Europe has shown that ice can act as a natural blockade that traps the oil and gives responders more time to clean it up.
The researchers’ preliminary findings conflict with the conventional wisdom about how spills in Arctic ice would be difficult, if not impossible, to clean up, Anchorage Daily News reports.
Shell brought the oil industry-funded researchers from the Norwegian nonprofit research institute SINTEF to Anchorage to present findings from experiments they ran in the Barents Sea in May. This was the final major tests in a 12 million USD, five-year research effort ending next year.
In the experiment, the researchers said they discharged 22 m³ of crude oil in broken and slushy ice off the northern coast of Norway. In the various spill experiments, the scientists tested several cleanup techniques, , including scraping it up with mechanical skimmers, burning oil surrounded by fireproof booms, and using chemical dispersants to force the oil to dilute to the point it can be eaten by micro-organisms. The tests showed that all three of those techniques effectively remove most of the spilled oil, the SINTEF researchers said.
The six other oil companies that funded the spill research are BP, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Statoil of Norway, Eni of Italy and Total of France.
