| Popis: |
The Norwegian Continental Shelf may be considered to be in a mature stage of development. Offshore oil and gas production are primarily located in areas far from the shore, allowing a significant time interval for near shore response in the case of an oil spill. Looking towards future activities, the trend seems to be that the most interesting areas for exploration activities are located closer to the shore, as well as further to the north than present oil producing installation. Another trend is an increasing diversity of oil types produced over existing installations, as satellite fields are developed. This requires increased flexibility of oil spill response measures and strategies. Anticipating these developments, the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies in 2002 initiated an R & D program for development of more flexible and robust equipment. This program includes redesign of skimmers, development of new booms and boom concepts, allowing higher towing speeds, as well as redesign and improvement of helicopter based dispersant systems. In June 2003, prototypes of this equipment were tested in NOFO's large scaleoil – on – water exercise. In this paper, highlights from these tests are presented. Further, the application of such equipment in near shore oil spill response operations along the Norwegian coast is discussed. |
