Study on the Key Technology of Deepwater Oil Spill Simulation in the South China Sea

Abstract

With the development of oil and gas fields in deepwater areas, the risk of deepwater oil spill accidents is increasing. In order to improve the capacity of deepwater oil spill contingency response and management in the South China Sea, an user-friendly and robust 3D (three-dimensional) underwater oil spill simulation system is developed by using the MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) interface library and the 3D OSG (Open Scene Graph) rendering engine. Many key technologies including submarine topography drawing, sea surface emulation, three-dimensional current display and oil particle simulation are developed and integrated, and the functions including 3D simulations of marine environment and deepwater oil spill prediction are also implemented in the simulation software system. The 3D oil spill simulation system has been applied in the preparation of oil spill response plans (OSRP) for Liwan 3-1 Block, Liwan 43-11 Block, Chevron’s Block 42-05 and Baiyun Block in the South China Sea. Preliminary application shows that the system can provide convenient and intuitive visual interactive services for the exploitation of oil and gas resources in the deepwater area of the South China Sea. Meanwhile, the system also specifies underwater trajectories of oil spill in deep waters, the concentration distribution of oil spilled in water, and the time and place the spilled oil reaches the surface, thus providing technical support for on-scene oil spill emergency response and marine environmental impact assessment.