BMT Cordah helps with sticky oil spill issue

01-May-2008

BMT Cordah Ltd (a BMT Group Ltd subsidiary) has been commissioned to help counter pollution authorities meet one of the key challenges in modern oil spill response.

BMT Cordah is carrying out a study on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to review methods and technologies for responding to oil that becomes submerged or sinks following spillage at sea. Headline grabbing incidents such as the Erika and Prestige have highlighted the limitations in current techniques for this work in recent years.

Oils can submerge or sink following weathering or interaction with sediment and are difficult to detect from the air or via remote sensing. If detected, they will often have moved once recovery has been organised and may be dispersed in discrete lumps over a wide area, reducing the chances of recovery.

BMT Cordah, together with oil spill specialists Alun Lewis and Oil Spill Response and East Asia Response Limited, will review the processes that are most important in the sinking of oil to provide guidance on the conditions in which oil spill might become submerged. Mathematical modelling techniques will be developed to improve forecasting of submerged oil movement and practical methods will be researched and proposed for detection and recovery of the oils.

Matthew Rymell, Regional Director of BMT Cordah’s Southampton office commented “Oils that sink are also likely to be extremely persistent, and can affect wildlife long distances from the original source – oil from the Prestige was found as far north as the Dover Strait

“The frequency of oil spills may be lower than ever but we are also seeing increasing volumes of heavy fuel oil cargoes. The threat of submergence during incidents involving heavy oil is one that spill response authorities cannot ignore.”

BMT Cordah has been active in oil spill research and consultancy for 15 years and jointly produces the award-winning Oil Spill Information System with NCEC. The current study follows an earlier MCA-funded research project conducted by BMT Cordah and Alun Lewis, which estimated that volumes of very heavy fuel oil cargoes – of the type carried on Erika and Prestige – transported through UK waters had almost doubled in the 5 years between 1998 and 2003.

The UK Government's maritime strategy aims to promote safe, efficient and environmentally friendly shipping; the (MCA) research programme seeks to support those broad aims. Currently the MCA are working on a number of projects related to maritime environmental protection with the aim of improving the UK position with respect to preparedness and response to spills of oil and hazardous and noxious substances. The MCA monitor closely how the results of its research have been taken forward, how recommendations are followed up and any significant impact that research has had.

BMT Cordah will be exhibiting at the International Oil Spill Conference and Exhibition, Savannah, USA on the 5-8th May 2008.