Deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico could resume within weeks under a policy by the US government, which has come under increasing criticism from the oil industry and politicians in the region over the impact of the drilling halt and worries from scientists that the full impact has not yet been assessed. Oil and gas exploration in the gulf’s deep waters has been stopped since May, when Ob...

We investigated the effects of a warmer climate, and seasonal trends, on the fate of oil spilled in the Arctic. Three well blowout scenarios, two shipping accidents and a pipeline rupture were considered. We used ensembles of numerical simulations, using the OSCAR oil spill model, with environmental data for the periods 2009-2012 and 2050-2053 (representing a warmer future) as inputs to the mod...

During a project examining the use of machine learning techniques for oil spill detection, we have encountered several essential questions that we believe deserve the attention of the research community. We use our particular case study to illustrate such issues as problem formulation, selection of evaluation measures, and data preparation. We relate these issues to properties of the oil spill ...

The sandy coasts of the south–eastern Baltic Sea are the unique landscape along the shores of Poland, Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), Lithuania and Latvia. Flat sandy beaches, protective dune ridges and near shore sandy spits are very valuable and attractive resources for human recreation and valuable habitat for wildlife. Intensifying shipping, operation of oil terminals and offshore platforms po...

Mystery oil spills off the Dutch coast affected colonial, adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls prior to and within the breeding season. From colour-ringed individuals, it was demonstrated that most oiled birds survived and were clean within a few weeks and often bred successfully. Further evidence of self-cleaning properties of Larus-gulls is provided from a long-term colour-ringing project (1984-20...

Survey data and wet lab reports presented in this paper were collected from Western coastlines of India from Goan beaches. Oil polluted areas were captured on camera as evidence for oil and tar pollution. Several microorganisms showing diverse characteristics such as pigment producers, salt tolerant and hydrocarbon resistance were isolated and cultured in the laboratory. The dataset presented i...

Studies of oil spills on sand beaches have focused traditionally on the effects of shortterm oil exposure, with recovery of sand beach macrobenthic communities occurring within several weeks to several years. The Deepwater Horizon spill resulted in chronic, multi-year re-oiling and up to 4 yr of extensive and often intensive treatments. Of the 965 km of sand beaches that were oiled, shoreline t...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the wind drift factor under strong tidal conditions in the western coastal area of Korea on the movement of oil slicks caused by the Hebei Spirit oil spill accident in 2007. The movement of oil slicks was computed using a simple simulation model based on the empirical formula as a function of surface current, wind speed, and the wind dr...

Drilling engineering comprises a major part of production and exploration in oil fields and drilling risk is a significant ingredient to success. As one of the crucial ways to terminate oil spill event, relief well assumes great responsibility. Thus it is essential to analyze and assess the risk of relief well technique before drilling operation in order to guarantee rescue project work smoothl...

further ± from the Black Mountains of South Wales. It appears that this particular street propagated (or spread) east-south-eastwards and then developed quite explosively over the hilly West Berkshire Downs area, in a case of topographically enhanced, localised convection. The observer in Hungerford (John Weevers, personal communication) commented on the frequency of lightning, but no hail ther...