- Email: [email protected]
New forties pipeline
Volume 22/Number 4/April 1991
the North Sea, an oil spill processes model and wind data provided by the UK Meteorological Office. It is reported that NERC is hoping to run a large term forecast model, with data from the Meteorological Office, to help in assessing the ecological effects of the Gulf spills.
The Cost of the Gulf Spill The cost of rescuing wildlife and protecting industrial plant could be as much as S1 billion over the next six months according to Saudi Arabian sources. A complete clean-up could take up to 10 years and cost $5 billion. There has been a wide international response to the catastrophe. Japan has sent equipment to several Gulf countries to help limit the spread of the slick including some 21 km of floating barriers. The Norwegians have sent an anti-pollution boat, the AI-Warsit, to the area. Britain has sent some 70 t of specialized equipment
including floating barriers and Germany is proposing to send equipment and technicians to the Gulf to help in the fight against the slick. Government experts on the EEC Task Force on Marine Pollution met at the end of January to assess the situation in the Gulf but, at the time of writing, an official request for EEC help from the Gulf States before it can intervene, is still awaited. Meanwhile the European Commission has asked the EEC's twelve member states to co-ordinate their efforts to fight the oil slick.
New Forties Pipeline The massive corrosion problems of the Forties pipeline have been solved by replacement of the old pipeline. The extensive corrosion of the pipe was not fully appreciated until 1988 when a new pigging capacity allowed the pipe to be examined thoroughly. The corrosion was progressively worse the nearer the platform it came, and was caused by carbon dioxide which on
Q V
"I'm getting a message for Professor Wagstaff's wife. He says to tell everyone to get a move on. The hole in the ozone layer is far worse than everyone thinksV
165
Marine PollutionBulletin forming carbonic acid began to affect the internal lining of the pipe. Every effort has been made to ensure that the new pipe will not suffer corrosion to the same extent. Short blasted surfaces were coated with epoxy primer and the carbon dioxide entering carefully controlled. The nickel level in welds was also increased to reverse any galvanitic corrosion which might occur. The pipe itself is much thicker, 28.6 mm rather than 19 mm, and this will allow a 6 mm safety margin should any corrosion occur. It also has a wider diameter of 36 inches allowing it to carry 950 000 barrels per day, about 30% more than the carrying capacity of the old pipe. Amerada Hess's massive development will now run its 180 000 barrels per day through the Forties pipeline along with the other ten systems which also used the old pipeline. The pipelaying was carried out at the very fast rate of 3.12 km a day by the French company ETPM. This is much faster than previous installations even though the new pipe has 40% more steel in it. After a 2-week shutdown of the old pipeline, oil has been switched and the 160 km new pipeline is now operational. Discussions are under way in order to decide on the fate of the old line. For the time being it is going to be emptied of oil, filled with nitrogen and then closely monitored. PHILIPPA AMBROSE
Oil Spill Threat to New Zealand Fur Seals Wild life teams are fighting to save a colony of rare New Zealand fur seals in South Australia. The seals were polluted by oil leaking from the bulk carrier Sanko Harvest grounded on a rock between Hood and Hastings Islands, 10 km south of Cape Le Grand, in the Recherche Archipelago, on 13 February. Sanko Harvest was en route from Tampa to Esperance with 30 000 t of fertilizer (diammonium phosphate and triple superphosphate) when she ran into a submerged rock pinnacle. The double bottom was ripped open from the forepeak to No. 4 hold. Fuel oil spilled into the sea, initially producing a slick 3 km long and 300 m wide. Salvors, who were hoping to save the cargo, made efforts to seal off 570 t of bunker fuel remaining on board. The leaking oil by this time had increased the slick to 15 km long and was beginning to threaten marine life and seals on nearby islands. Hopes of salvage were dashed when the ship broke up and sank on 18 February taking with her her cargo, worth S10.5 million. The oil is threatening a colony of New Zealand fur seals that have been contaminated with the oil. Australian Conservation and Land Management Department officers and volunteers mounted a special operation to save seal pups after the Hood Island breeding ground was contaminated by oil. The Sanko Harvest was not in a regular shipping lane when she went aground, although the vessel's master and officer of the watch were both on bridge when the accident happened. The vessel's owners have been told 166
they will be responsible for the cost of the cleanup operation which is already over $50 000 and rising. Australian Federal regulations also mean that they will also be held accountable for the cost of recovering the oil left in the ship.
Nigerian Oil Spill Contingency Plan Input for Nigeria's National Oil Spill Contingency Plan was provided 18-21 February by an international symposium and discussion groups, held at Badagry, Lagos. This was organized by the National Committee for the Formulation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan for Nigeria--a Committee which had already visited the UK, France, Singapore, Venezuela, and USA to review contingency planning in these countries. The symposium included a contribution from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on general perspectives for national contingency plans (including training and monitoring); Nigerian Navy proposals for a command and control structure; and oil company contributions on response strategies for sea, land, swamps, and beaches. Three discussion groups considered basic inputs to the national plan, the plan structure, and plan operations and maintenance. Organizations which could help form the foundation for the plan include the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and the relatively new Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Existing arrangements in Nigeria are that minor spills are dealt with by the individual oil companies, and medium/large spills through the Clean Nigeria Associates (CNA) co-operative. CNA membership currently comprises eleven oil companies, and the CNA contractor maintains equipment at major bases in Port Harcourt and Warri, and satellite bases in Kaduna and Calabar. The National Oil Spill Contingency Plan recognizes the need for a third level of response for catastrophic spills, involving co-operating arrangements between industry and the relevant government agencies. Recognition of this need has been heightened by the Exxon Valdez spill and recent events in the Gulf. Environmental Sensitivity Index maps are viewed as an important input to the national plan. Such maps have already been prepared for limited areas by individual oil companies, but the production of maps to cover the whole of Nigeria's oil producing region will be a challenging task. In addition to the large size of the area, there is a great diversity of terrain, including sandy beaches, mud flats, extensive mangrove swamps, low salinity and freshwater swamps, rivers, forest, grassland and agricultural land. Village communities rely on fishing and agriculture, and are vulnerable to both aquatic and terrestrial spills. Thought is being given to ways in which these communities can be constructively involved in oil spill response. JENIFER B AK E R
the North Sea, an oil spill processes model and wind data provided by the UK Meteorological Office. It is reported that NERC is hoping to run a large term forecast model, with data from the Meteorological Office, to help in assessing the ecological effects of the Gulf spills.
The Cost of the Gulf Spill The cost of rescuing wildlife and protecting industrial plant could be as much as S1 billion over the next six months according to Saudi Arabian sources. A complete clean-up could take up to 10 years and cost $5 billion. There has been a wide international response to the catastrophe. Japan has sent equipment to several Gulf countries to help limit the spread of the slick including some 21 km of floating barriers. The Norwegians have sent an anti-pollution boat, the AI-Warsit, to the area. Britain has sent some 70 t of specialized equipment
including floating barriers and Germany is proposing to send equipment and technicians to the Gulf to help in the fight against the slick. Government experts on the EEC Task Force on Marine Pollution met at the end of January to assess the situation in the Gulf but, at the time of writing, an official request for EEC help from the Gulf States before it can intervene, is still awaited. Meanwhile the European Commission has asked the EEC's twelve member states to co-ordinate their efforts to fight the oil slick.
New Forties Pipeline The massive corrosion problems of the Forties pipeline have been solved by replacement of the old pipeline. The extensive corrosion of the pipe was not fully appreciated until 1988 when a new pigging capacity allowed the pipe to be examined thoroughly. The corrosion was progressively worse the nearer the platform it came, and was caused by carbon dioxide which on
Q V
"I'm getting a message for Professor Wagstaff's wife. He says to tell everyone to get a move on. The hole in the ozone layer is far worse than everyone thinksV
165
Marine PollutionBulletin forming carbonic acid began to affect the internal lining of the pipe. Every effort has been made to ensure that the new pipe will not suffer corrosion to the same extent. Short blasted surfaces were coated with epoxy primer and the carbon dioxide entering carefully controlled. The nickel level in welds was also increased to reverse any galvanitic corrosion which might occur. The pipe itself is much thicker, 28.6 mm rather than 19 mm, and this will allow a 6 mm safety margin should any corrosion occur. It also has a wider diameter of 36 inches allowing it to carry 950 000 barrels per day, about 30% more than the carrying capacity of the old pipe. Amerada Hess's massive development will now run its 180 000 barrels per day through the Forties pipeline along with the other ten systems which also used the old pipeline. The pipelaying was carried out at the very fast rate of 3.12 km a day by the French company ETPM. This is much faster than previous installations even though the new pipe has 40% more steel in it. After a 2-week shutdown of the old pipeline, oil has been switched and the 160 km new pipeline is now operational. Discussions are under way in order to decide on the fate of the old line. For the time being it is going to be emptied of oil, filled with nitrogen and then closely monitored. PHILIPPA AMBROSE
Oil Spill Threat to New Zealand Fur Seals Wild life teams are fighting to save a colony of rare New Zealand fur seals in South Australia. The seals were polluted by oil leaking from the bulk carrier Sanko Harvest grounded on a rock between Hood and Hastings Islands, 10 km south of Cape Le Grand, in the Recherche Archipelago, on 13 February. Sanko Harvest was en route from Tampa to Esperance with 30 000 t of fertilizer (diammonium phosphate and triple superphosphate) when she ran into a submerged rock pinnacle. The double bottom was ripped open from the forepeak to No. 4 hold. Fuel oil spilled into the sea, initially producing a slick 3 km long and 300 m wide. Salvors, who were hoping to save the cargo, made efforts to seal off 570 t of bunker fuel remaining on board. The leaking oil by this time had increased the slick to 15 km long and was beginning to threaten marine life and seals on nearby islands. Hopes of salvage were dashed when the ship broke up and sank on 18 February taking with her her cargo, worth S10.5 million. The oil is threatening a colony of New Zealand fur seals that have been contaminated with the oil. Australian Conservation and Land Management Department officers and volunteers mounted a special operation to save seal pups after the Hood Island breeding ground was contaminated by oil. The Sanko Harvest was not in a regular shipping lane when she went aground, although the vessel's master and officer of the watch were both on bridge when the accident happened. The vessel's owners have been told 166
they will be responsible for the cost of the cleanup operation which is already over $50 000 and rising. Australian Federal regulations also mean that they will also be held accountable for the cost of recovering the oil left in the ship.
Nigerian Oil Spill Contingency Plan Input for Nigeria's National Oil Spill Contingency Plan was provided 18-21 February by an international symposium and discussion groups, held at Badagry, Lagos. This was organized by the National Committee for the Formulation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan for Nigeria--a Committee which had already visited the UK, France, Singapore, Venezuela, and USA to review contingency planning in these countries. The symposium included a contribution from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on general perspectives for national contingency plans (including training and monitoring); Nigerian Navy proposals for a command and control structure; and oil company contributions on response strategies for sea, land, swamps, and beaches. Three discussion groups considered basic inputs to the national plan, the plan structure, and plan operations and maintenance. Organizations which could help form the foundation for the plan include the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and the relatively new Federal Environmental Protection Agency. Existing arrangements in Nigeria are that minor spills are dealt with by the individual oil companies, and medium/large spills through the Clean Nigeria Associates (CNA) co-operative. CNA membership currently comprises eleven oil companies, and the CNA contractor maintains equipment at major bases in Port Harcourt and Warri, and satellite bases in Kaduna and Calabar. The National Oil Spill Contingency Plan recognizes the need for a third level of response for catastrophic spills, involving co-operating arrangements between industry and the relevant government agencies. Recognition of this need has been heightened by the Exxon Valdez spill and recent events in the Gulf. Environmental Sensitivity Index maps are viewed as an important input to the national plan. Such maps have already been prepared for limited areas by individual oil companies, but the production of maps to cover the whole of Nigeria's oil producing region will be a challenging task. In addition to the large size of the area, there is a great diversity of terrain, including sandy beaches, mud flats, extensive mangrove swamps, low salinity and freshwater swamps, rivers, forest, grassland and agricultural land. Village communities rely on fishing and agriculture, and are vulnerable to both aquatic and terrestrial spills. Thought is being given to ways in which these communities can be constructively involved in oil spill response. JENIFER B AK E R