Special expenditures

April 10, 2000
Oil & Gas Journal's 2000 Capital Spending Outlook, beginning on p. 44, shows recent trends in oil company spending and estimated expenditures for the current year.

Oil & Gas Journal's 2000 Capital Spending Outlook, beginning on p. 44, shows recent trends in oil company spending and estimated expenditures for the current year.

Outside of the daily expenses involved in exploration and production, refining, and pipelines that are covered in the report, several large companies with deepwater interests are helping to fund a research project in the North Sea.

An experiment will be conducted this June off the coast of Norway to show how oil and gas behave when released in deepwater as the result of a blowout or pipeline leak. Chevron Corp. is spearheading the project, dubbed Deep Spill, with funding coming from the US Minerals Management Service and a number of oil companies that have interests in deepwater development.

Unknown effects

Scientists who study oil spills have long believed that oil or gas released in deep water will behave much differently than it would in shallow water. The primary reasons for this are the high pressures and low temperatures that are characteristic of deep water.

These two factors, as well as currents, make it difficult to predict where and when spills from such depths will surface, if at all.

The goal of studying a controlled release of oil and gas is to obtain the baseline data needed to calibrate deepwater models. To date, computer models of such spills have been unreliable without an actual trial.

Another benefit of this field experiment will be the opportunity to test the surveillance technology that will track the spill while it is beneath the surface of the water.

Test procedure

The plan for the 3-day test is for a large workboat to release 100 cu m of oil and 200 cu m of natural gas in at least four experiments. Two different Norwegian crudes will be released, one of them prone to emulsification. The site of the release will be 100 km off Trondheim, Norway, at a water depth of 1,000 m.

An oceanographic vessel will monitor the spill using a current profiler, water sampling equipment, and two remotely operated vehicles. One ROV will collect water samples and measure the sizes of oil droplets and gas bubbles while the other tracks the spill using sonar and video. Aircraft flying over the area will monitor the surface slick using remote sensing equipment, and small vessels will test samples of the surface slick.

The total cost for Project Deep Spill is estimated at $1.4 million. While MMS is providing major funding, oil industry participants will pay half the costs.

For $100,000, a company can join the project and gain full access to the data gathered in the experiment.