Oil Spill Case Research Articles

Oil Spill Environmental Forensics: the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill Case

After the Hebei Spirit oil spill (HSOS) in December 2007, mixtures of three types of Middle East crude oil (total 12,547 kL) were stranded along 375 km of coastline in Western Korea. Emergency responses together with 1.3 million volunteers' activity rapidly removed ca. 20% of spilled oil but the lingering oils have been found along the heavily impacted shorelines for more than 4 years. The HSOS was the worst oil spill case in Republic of Korea, and there were many issues and lessons to be shared. In this study, we summarized some of the oil spill environmental forensic issues that were raised after the HSOS. Rapid screening using on-site measurement, long-term monitoring of multimedia, fingerprinting challenges and evaluation of the extent of the submerged oil were introduced, which supported decision making process of oil spill cleanup, mitigation of debates among stakeholders and provided scientific backgrounds for reasonable compensation.

Numerical modelling of an oil spill in the northern Adriatic

Hypothetical cases of oil spills, caused by ship failure in the northern Adriatic, are analysed with the aim of producing three-dimensional models of sea circulation and oil contaminant transport. Sea surface elevations, sea temperature and salinity fields are applied as a forcing argument on the model’s open boundaries. The Aladin-HR model with a spatial resolution of 8km and a time interval of 3hours is used for atmospheric forcing. River discharges along the coastline in question are introduced as point source terms and are assumed to have zero salinity at their respective locations. The results of the numerical modelling of physical oceanography parameters are validated by measurements carried out in the ‘Adriatic Sea monitoring programme’ in a series of current meter and CTD stations in the period from 1 January 2008 to 15 November 2008.The oil spill model uses the current field obtained from a circulation model. Besides the convective dispersive transport of oil pollution (Lagrangian model of discrete particles), the model takes into account a number of reactive processes such as emulsification, dissolution, evaporation and heat balance between the oil, sea and atmosphere. An actual event took place on 6 February 2008, when the ship ‘Und Adriyatik’ caught fire in the vicinity of the town of Rovinj (Croatia) en route from Istanbul (Turkey) to Trieste (Italy). At the time the fire broke out, the ship was carrying around 800 tons of oil. Thanks to the rapid intervention of the fire department, the fire was extinguished during the following 12hours, preventing possible catastrophic environmental consequences. Based on this occurrence, five hypothetical scenarios of ship failure with a consequent spill of 800 tons of oil over 12hours were analysed. The main distinction between the simulated scenarios is the time of the start of the oil spill, corresponding to the times when stronger winds were blowing (>7ms−1) with a minimum duration of 24h within the timeframe. Each scenario includes a simulation of oil transport for a period of two months after the beginning of the oil spill.The results show that the coastal belt between the towns of Poreč and Rovinj is seriously exposed to an oil pollution load, especially a few days after a strong and persistent bora (NE wind).

Effect of localized oil spills on Atlantic loggerhead population dynamics

The purpose of this study is to analyze the population dynamics of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) affected by localized oil spills. Methods include development of a spatial, stage-classified matrix model parameterized for the following primary loggerhead populations: Gulf of Mexico, western North Atlantic Ocean, and Florida peninsula. Oil spills are simulated deterministically in each population's nesting region, with 1) oil-induced mortality ranging from 25% to 100% and 2) stage classes affected either proportionally or equally. A transient sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the parameters most influential to the population growth rate. Results suggest that increased protection and understanding of young sea turtles found in the Sargasso Sea is essential to the survival of the species. In addition, findings provide insights into the population dynamics of the At- lantic loggerhead turtles and identify conservation measures appropriate in each oil spill case.

Numerical Modelling of Oil Spills in the Area of Kvarner and Rijeka Bay (The Northern Adriatic Sea)

Several hypothetical cases of oil spills from tankers in the Kvarner and Rijeka Bay were analyzed using three‐dimensional circulation models coupled with oil spill model. Two circulation models—local one covering the area of Kvarner Bay, Rijeka Bay, and Vinodol channel along with the basin‐wide one covering the whole Adriatic Sea—are connected through the one‐way nesting procedure by imposing the results from the Adriatic model to the open boundaries of the local one. Oil spill model relays on the current fields obtained by the local circulation model during all our simulations. Spreading of the oil pollution from three hypothetical positions of tanker accidents in the local model domain was simulated for the periods of 10 “winter‐season” and “summer‐season” days. The oil spill model results show that the hypothetical tanker accidents in the center of the Rijeka Bay are the most dangerous for the studied area in both seasons. Summer‐season case shows significantly worse situation from the ecological point of view, oil spills spread on the larger area simply because stratification and mixing present during the winter period reduce oil slick effect.

The Role of Government in Disaster Management: The Case of theHebei SpiritOil Spill Compensation

Despite trends toward decentralized disaster management inclusive of local governments, civil organizations, and the private sector, we see centralized management and strong government involvement in the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage and the International Oil Pollution Compensation's compensation for large oil spills around the world including the Hebei Spirit oil spill in Korea. Why does the government inevitably become involved and provide a portion of the compensation when the settlement is to occur between the insured company and the affected groups and individuals? To answer this question I examine government's role in disaster management, broadly, and the role of government in disaster compensation, specifically, examining the case of the Hebei Spirit oil spill that occurred off the coast of Korea in December 2007. We witness some structural constraints as well as local-specific reasons for centralization in the Korean case. The slow progress of compensation was a major structural constraint that prompted central government involvement. Moreover, the lack of skills and knowledge on the part of affected individuals and groups regarding compensation procedures, a culture of dependence on the central government, and the negative impact of geographic proximity in the distribution of relief funds further increased the role of central government in oil spill compensation. The case of the Hebei Spirit oil spill emphasizes the advantages of a nuanced approach to disaster management—one that recognizes that decentralized management may not be feasible or successful in every aspect of the response. Further research is necessary to understand why disaster compensations including oil spill cases are more centralized than other types of disaster management.

The Corporate Responsibility to Remedy (3rd Pillar Ruggie Framework) - Analysis of the Corporate Responses in Three Major Oil Spill Cases: Shell - Nigeria, BP – US (the Gulf), Chevron – Ecuador

From 2005-2011, the UN Special Representative for Human Rights and Business, Prof. John Ruggie, has built a governance framework comprising three pillars, i.e., ‘Protect, Respect, Remedy,’ to clarify the complementary roles of governments (public actors) and companies (private actors) in respect to the protection and realisation of human rights. The first pillar of the framework concerns the State’s duty to protect citizens from human rights violations by private actors, such as companies. The second pillar regards the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. The third pillar is about the shared responsibility of States and companies to provide legal and non-legal remedies to victims of corporate (mis)conduct. The concepts and ideas contained in this pillar still require sharpening as well as discussion on how to put them into practice. This article centres on the third pillar. First, it discusses the background and content of the third pillar: what does it mean to provide remedies, both from the corporate governance perspective and from a more operational perspective? It analyses what Ruggie’s ‘Guiding Principles’ state on providing effective remedies. Next, three case studies concerning major oil spills will be presented. In each of them, problems with communities escalated resulting in many legal procedures. The first is the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The second and third cases concern the oil spills and environmental pollution in water basins and soil in Ecuador and Nigeria for which, respectively, Chevron and Shell are being held accountable in various legal proceedings. The corporate responses by each of these multinationals towards said proceedings are analysed from the perspective of Remedy (and the prevention of conflicts). Finally, an attempt is made to test the oil companies’ remedies against the effectiveness parameters as contained in Ruggie’s Guiding Principles, meanwhile indicating where possibilities lay for improvement.

The 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Implications for theory of organizational disaster

Focusing on the interaction of technology and organizational factors, the present paper examines the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill for the purpose of developing a better understanding of the requirements for a theory of organizational disasters. Drawing from literature on organizational disasters, a model of “technology-embedded disasters” is developed and discussed. After outlining the events surrounding the oil spill disaster, the model is employed in analysis of the oil spill. The oil spill case is employed as a means of reflecting on the requirements for an improved model of organizational disaster.

Phytoplankton bloom over the Northwest Shelf of Australia after the Montara oil spill in 2009

Temporal variations of chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration before and after the Montara oil spill in August 2009 in the Timor Sea were analysed using MODIS-derived Chl a data. Time series data suggested a decrease in Chl a concentration following the oil spill, but an increase occurring in May 2010. A 4000 km2 patchy phytoplankton bloom with a high concentration of 13.8 mg m−3 occurred southeast of the platform, which coincided with the location the residual oil spill finally moved to. The Chl a was usually high in that area in May, but reached a peak in May 2010: the monthly Chl a for May 2010 was one and a half times higher than that of the average value for May between 2003 and 2009. The present study also analysed as many as 15 cases of major marine oil spills in the world and discussed their impacts on phytoplankton. The results suggested that the increase of Chl a may have relations with the oil spill incident. Natural seasonal variability is also an important factor for the formation of the phytoplankton bloom.

Volunteers and Oil Spills – A Technical Perspective

ABSTRACT Many oil spill cases around the world have experienced significant volunteer turnouts. One of the most recent was the HEBEI SPIRIT incident in South Korea in 2007, where 10,500 tonnes of crude oil were spilled, 400km of shoreline were contaminated and 1.2 million volunteers came to help. The sheer number of people involved in such cases can, however, create extra issues that add to the core work of cleaning up the spill. The use of volunteers in oil spills has been far from consistent and there have been many incidents where volunteers did not attend, were actively discouraged or even prohibited from participating. This paper reviews the use of volunteers in oil spills based on ITOPF experience and describes some of the factors which may influence volunteer turnout, such as management attitudes towards volunteers and the role of the media.

Management of Debris, Waste, and Operational Issues at a Multi-Jurisdictional Inland Oil Spill: A Coffeyville, Kansas, Refinery Oil Spill Case Study

ABSTRACT Severe flooding in southeast Kansas caused the Verdigris River to overtop the levee surrounding Coffeyville, Kansas on July 1, 2007. Flood waters carried approximately 2,145 barrels of crude oil from Coffeyville Resources Refinery (the refinery) through the town of Coffeyville and southward into Oklahoma. On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) from EPA Region 7 were deployed to Coffeyville on July 1, 2007. The refinery signed an Administrative Order on Consent with EPA approximately one week later, and subsequently submitted a work plan to EPA. Given that the release originated in Kansas, Region 7 was the lead EPA region, and coordinated with the state of Kansas and other regional stakeholders; EPA Region 6 had on-site personnel and provided oversight support and coordination with the state of Oklahoma. EPA regions, states and local stakeholders managed the incident response under unified command. Communication and coordination between the two states, two EPA regions, the refinery, and local representative...

Oil Spill Response Information System and Contingency Planning for Guinean Waters

Abstract Over the years there has been many well documented cases of major oil pollution from leaked offshore oil rigs, ships in distress and from coastal oil facilities. In response to concerns about the possibility of a major oil spillage occurring along the coast of Guinea, the Guinean government drew up a plan and organisation. The purpose of this research was to develop Guinean Marine Oil Spill Response Information System. To do this, we simulated an oil spill concentration transport. The results show that the numerical model in oil spill accident simulation is important in allowing setting up of possible response and contingency planning. From the results we conclude that, the search strategies for futures responses and contingency planning to possible oil spill case in Guinean coasts has been clarified. Implications of research findings allow international community to consider reasonable estimation of spilled oil trajectory with limited environmental input data.

Numerical modeling of two-phase fluid flow and oil slick transport in estuarine water

Oil spills is one of the most important hazards in the estuarine and coastal water. In recent decades, engineers try to predict the status of oil slick to manage the pollution spreading. The prediction of oil slick transport is carried out mainly by means of numerical models. In the current study, the development and application of a two-phase fluid flow model to simulate oil transport in the marine environment are presented. Different transport and fate processes are included in the developed model. The model consists of the Lagrangian method for the advection process, the Random Walk technique for horizontal diffusion process and the empirical equations for the fate processes. The major forces for driving oil particles are fluid current, wind speed and turbulent flow. Therefore, the multi-component hydrocarbon method has been included to the developed model in order to predict fate processes. As prediction of particle velocity components is of major importance for oil slick advection, therefore the binomial interpolation procedure has been chosen for the particle velocity components computations. In addition, shoreline boundary condition is included in the developed model to simulate shore response to oil slick transport near the beaches. The results of the model applications are compared with the analytical solutions, experimental measurements and other numerical models cited in literature. Comparisons of different sets of results represent the capability of developed model to predict the oil slick transport. In addition, the developed model is tested for two oil spill cases in the Persian Gulf.

Use of an ANP to prioritize managerial responsibilities of maritime stakeholders in environmental incidents: An oil spill case

While maritime pollution is often caused at the operational level, the causes can generally be traced back to shortcomings in the ship–shore interface and to poor communication among stakeholders. Here, the environmental responsibilities of maritime stakeholders are systematically analyzed and quantified using an analytic network process. This approach ensures that the most important dependencies and feedbacks among the responsibilities which is applied to a real marine situation (an oil spill) to validate the theoretical basis. A number of latent links between stakeholders’ responsibilities and the catastrophic impacts of the spill are identified.

How efficient can international compensation regimes be in pollution prevention? A discussion of the case of marine oil spills

This article studies the deterrent effect of the specific liability and compensation regime defined by the CLC and FUND conventions in the field of marine oil pollution, taking into account its voluntary nature. The discussion is based on a model derived from the economic analysis of international environmental agreements, applied to the case of oil pollution damage compensation. We analyse the conditions under which a FUND-like international compensation scheme is self-enforcing. We then discuss the overall impact of a self-enforcing international compensation regime in terms of accidental oil pollution prevention. We show in particular that the deterrent effect of such a compensation regime is a negative function of (i) the number of countries at stake in the field of oil pollution and (ii) the level of financial caps limiting the compensation for damage.

Hydrocarbon contamination of a terrestrial ecosystem: the case of Oshire-2 oil spill in Niger Delta, Nigeria

An oil-impacted site at Oshire-2 in Niger Delta (Nigeria) was delimited by reconnaissance. Surface and subsurface soils were analyzed for total extractable hydrocarbon content and some physicochemical characteristics. The oil-impacted soils had a mean hydrocarbon content of 1.99 × 103 mg/kg (no overlap in Standard Error at 95% Confidence Limit) and were characterized by an isohyperthermic temperature regime >22°C, high moisture content, high acidity (low soil-pH) and low electrical conductivity. The intense infusion of degradable hydrocarbons at the site must have stimulated aerobic and anaerobic microbial metabolism and so, as oxygen became limiting, utilization of alternate electron acceptors produced an increasingly reducing environment.

Exposure Elements in Oil Spill Risk and Natural Resource Damage Assessments: A Review

ABSTRACT The use of the ecological risk assessment (ERA) framework for assessing effects of oil spills is applicable to the injury assessment component of natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Central to the ERA process is the assessment of exposure, the critical component linking the release of oil to the assessment of effects. Exposure of biological receptors to the toxic fractions of spilled oil, usually considered the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), requires carefully designed and implemented assessment studies, which are periodically refocused on various environmental pathways and the various biological receptors of concern over the life history of an oil spill from initial release to recovery. As important is the detailed assessment of the exposure regime in the absence of a spill (i.e., the baseline or background exposure). A release of petroleum may not, in itself, equate to an effect on a natural resource. The presence of residual petroleum hydrocarbons does not imply either availability to living organisms or injury to a biological resource. Precise and accurate chemical concentration and compositional data for 2–6 ringed PAHs and alkylated homologues are the key toxicologically important chemical components that are central to the exposure assessment. These principles are illustrated in several oil spill case studies.

The Role of Risk Aversion and Lay Risk in the Probabilistic Externality Assessment for Oil Tanker Routes to Europe

Oil spills are a major cause of environmental concern, in particular for Europe. However, the traditional approach to the evaluation of the expected external costs of these accidents fails to take into full account the implications of their probabilistic nature. By adapting a methodology originally developed for nuclear accidents to the case of oil spills, we extend the traditional approach to the assessment of the welfare losses borne by potentially affected individuals for being exposed to the risk of an oil spill. The proposed methodology differs from the traditional approach in three respects: it allows for risk aversion; it adopts an ex-ante rather than an ex-post perspective; it allows for subjective oil spill probabilities (held by the lay public) higher than those assessed by the experts in the field. In order to illustrate quantitatively this methodology, we apply it to the hypothetical (yet realistic) case of an oil spill in the Aegean Sea. We assess the risk premiums that potentially affected individuals would be willing to pay in order to avoid losses to economic activities such as tourism and fisheries, and non-use damages resulting from environmental impacts on the Aegean coasts. In the scenarios analysed, the risk premiums on expected losses for tourism and fisheries turn out to be substantial when measured as a percentage of expected losses; by contrast, they are quite small for the case of damages to the natural environment.

Corporate Psychological Defences: An Oil Spill Case

Organisational psychological defences protect the self-esteem and moral integrity of the organisational personality even at the expense of sacrificing the morality of actions. This paper analyses the spectrum of defences used by an oil refinery and its parent company during an oil spill incident. A hypothetical model of defences built on Swajkowski’s four responses to accusations of organisational misconduct – refusals, excuses, justifications and concessions – is tested through this case. On the basis of empirical findings it is obvious that defences delay, impede and interrupt the mitigation and recovery actions of incidents. It is not possible to break the defence behaviour of individuals because it is a built-in psychological mechanism in all humans serving a valuable purpose of dosing the pain of injury. However, it is possible to separate individual and organisational behaviour so that automatic organisational procedures mitigate, recover and, ultimately, prevent incidents. The organisational psychological task of crisis management is to mitigate the organisation’s ego defences, recover from its emotional turmoil and prevent further traumas by making its ego stronger and more flexible. The argument of this paper is that in practice organisational defences act as bumpers against becoming too conscious of the gap between the corporate rhetoric and reality, as subconscious breaks against too fast change demands, and as batteries in their preconscious effort to prepare for the change. Organisational refusals act as bumpers, excuses as breaks and justifications as batteries, while concessions imply that a change towards a more responsible corporation is taking place.

Environmental impact assessment of off shore oil spill on desalination plant

This study deals with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which is a systematic identification and evaluation of the potential impact of a proposed project or any action that may affect of the environment directly or indirectly in temporary or permanent terms, of off shore oil spill on desalination plants. Sources of off shore oil spill, fates and effects on different environmental items are discussed. The setting conditions and ecological life around Umm Al Nar desalination station, Abu Dhabi, UAE, are discussed. A hypothetic case of oil spill is assumed around the desalination station and the hydrodynamic model was used to predict the direction and concentration of oil around the station with emphasis on the places where seawater was used as feed water to the station. Based on predicted concentrations, the EIA was evaluated via the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) model. The RIAM model seeks to overcome the problems of recording subjective judgments by defining the criteria and scales against which these judgments are to be made and by placing the results in a simple matrix that allows for permanent records of the arguments in the judgment process. In the EIA, the influence of oil contaminated seawater, when it is used as the feed water to the desalination plant, on the performance of system equipments and production water has been discussed. System units such as heat transfer tubes, temperature control, brine heater, vacuum system and evaporation chamber were utilized for evaluating the system performance. Production water quality was evaluated in relation to chlorination and organo-halogenic compounds, formation of trihalomethane (THM) by chlorination of product water, and corrosion of plant materials. Various remedial measures were proposed and evaluated in view of their technical, environmental (physical, chemical and biological), social and economic aspects.

Decision support system in oil spill cases (literature review)

Oil pollution is one of the most important issues affecting the marine coastal environments all over the world. There are a large number of organizations to propose plans for managing the problems that coastal areas face, including various methods to combat the oil spills. This project proposes to achieve a decision support system (DSS) to assist the users/managers to choose the most suitable method for combating oil spills, according to the coastal area sensitivity. In this regard and in order to build an appropriate DSS model, some relevant documents regarding oil spills and spills management strategies, GIS‐based modeling, and DSS planning were reviewed, some of which are referred to here.