Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Volume 5 Number 3: The Science of Deepwater Oil Spills - Results from the 2013 Marine Scotland Science Workshop

The workshop on “The Science Of Deepwater Oil Spills – Modelling” held in

Aberdeen in September 2013 included more than 50 experts drawn from academia,

government, consultants and industry to discuss aspects of the science needed to

respond in an effec


The Science of Deepwater Oil Spills
Workshop 1 - Modelling

Workshop Report

Introduction

A workshop on "The Science Of Deepwater Oil Spills - Modelling" was convened by Marine Scotland Science, Marine Laboratory Aberdeen, Scotland, 18-19 September 2013. The aim was to investigate the science needed to model a deep water accidental oil release in the region of the Scottish shelf break/Faroe Shetland Channel (here forth referred to collectively as FSC, unless specifically stated otherwise). This first workshop focused on the science needed to improve the modelling of a spill. Further workshops will focus on other aspects, including monitoring spills.

Oil exploration in UK waters is taking place at increasing depths, in areas of complex oceanographic and extreme environmental conditions such as the FSC. In the case of an environmental incident, numerical models are potentially critical tools to guide the monitoring and response effort. However, modelling the behaviour of oil spills at depth is still under development and current hydrodynamic models of these waters are not yet able to fully describe the complex oceanographic patterns observed.

The workshop was used to investigate the modelling capacity to respond to a deep water oil spill in the FSC.

The three specific workshop objectives were:

− To review the current state of the art modelling capacity, applicable to the FSC area.
− To identify knowledge gaps.
− To recommend future improvements and propose specific research topics.

The workshop only considered aspects directly relevant to modelling. It was organised into four themes:

1. Oceanography of the area.
2. Circulation modelling.
3. Dispersion modelling.
4. Processes affecting the behaviour of the oil, e.g. interaction with sediments, natural oil degradation and the science behind chemical dispersants and their effects.

Expressions of interest were invited from experts from relevant academic and research organisations, industry and industry bodies, consultancies and government departments.

Participants were organised into working tables. After each theme's presentations the working tables considered the aspects of "State of the Art", "Knowledge Gaps" and "Future Recommendations". A plenary session then gathered feedback from each table and these were recorded by the convenors. In "State of the Art", participants were asked to emphasize any particular issues shown in the presentations but also to identify areas of present knowledge not included in those, while "Knowledge Gaps" refer to aspects where our present knowledge is inadequate or non-existent. The division between what we know but was not presented at the workshop, what we do not know and what we should know is somewhat artificial and this is reflected in some degree of overlap between these categories in the notes taken of the discussions. In this report, however, we have attempted to re-organise the discussions based on the definition of these three categories, as defined above.

Acknowledgements

Marine Scotland Science, and the authors of this report, would like to acknowledge the expert contributions from the following participants to the workshop:

Name

Surname

Organization

Dmitry

Aleynik

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Babatunde

Anifowose

Coventry University

CJ

Beegle-Krause

SINTEF Materials and Chemistry

Bee

Berx

Marine Scotland Science

Alison

Brand

BMT Cordah Ltd

Eileen

Bresnan

Marine Scotland Science

Anna

Buckingham

DECC

Craig

Bunyan

Chevron

Ana

Carrasco

Norwegian Meteorological Institute

Neil

Chapman

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

kevin

colcomb

Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Julie

Cook

DECC

Knut Frode

Dagestad

Norwegian Meteorological Institute

Andrew

Dale

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Andrew

Davies

ConocoPhillips

Tim

Endean

RPS Energy

Therese

Follin

DECC

Sine

Gabbott

Maersk Oil UK

Alejandro

Gallego

Marine Scotland Science

Ian

Greenwood

Shell

Tony

Gutierrez

Heriot-Watt University

Liam

Harrington-Missin

Oil Spill Response Ltd.

Peter

Hayes

Marine Scotland Science

Sean

Hayes

Genesis

Lars Robert

Hole

Norwegian Meteorological Institute

Michelle

Horsefield

BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd.

Mark

Inall

Scottish Association for Marine Science

Gillian

Kinsella

Oil & Gas UK

Sebastien

Legrand

RBINS / OD Nature

Lucie

Lépissier

BMT Cordah Ltd

Joanna

Lester

Xodus

Charlie

Main

National Oceanography Centre

Silvia

Maßmann

BSH

Andrew

Matthews

Petrofac

Hannah

Moir

Genesis Oil and Gas

Nicole

Mulanaphy

RPS ASA

Clare

Murray

Chevron

Rory

O'Hara Murray

Marine Scotland Science

Louise

O'Hara Murray

Oil & Gas UK

Bruno

Pereira

Qualitas Remos

Katya

Popova

National Oceanography Centre

Jon

Rees

Cefas

Petter

Rønningen

SITNEF Materials and Chemistry

Toby

Sherwin

SAMS

Lucy

Short

Oil Spill Response Ltd.

John

Siddorn

Met Office

Paul

Stainer

Marine Scotland Science

Nataliya

Stashchuk

The University of Plymouth

Bill

Turrell

Marine Scotland Science

Vasyl

Vlasenko

The University of Plymouth

Sarah

Wakelin

National Oceanography Centre

Ursula

Witte

University of Aberdeen

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