Improved And Standardized Methodology For Oil Spill Fingerprinting

Abstract

The existing Nordtest methodology for oil spill Identification has over the past 10 years formed an important platform for solving oil spill identification cases both in the Scandinavian countries as well as other countries in Europe, the USA and Canada. Revision of the Nordtest Methodology for Oil Spill Identification is a cooperative project between the National Oil Spill Identification laboratories in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Battelle Memorial Institute (Duxbury) in the USA. The goals of the project are: (1) to refine the existing Nordtest methodology into a technically more robust and defensible oil spill identification methodology with focus on determination of quantitative diagnostic indices (ratios) and (2) to adjust the revised Nordtest methodology into guidelines for the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). This paper presents the recommended methodology for the analytical oil spill identification part. The sampling techniques and handling of oil samples and backgro...