| Background
When Arctic offshore oil drilling was first proposed during the early 1970s, a large programme of research was carried out into the ways in which oil from spill or seabed blowouts interacts with ice, is incorporated into the ice, is transported and is finally released. Much of this research was done in Canada by government scientists and consultants in the Beaufort Sea Project, and more research was done later by SINTEF and other organisations in Europe. The work involved real oil spills carried out under fast and moving ice as well as laboratory, tank and modelling studies. When drilling in the Arctic Ocean did not proceed, research almost ceased, but a very large cumulative body of expertise had been built up. Today the advent of new techniques such as AUVs with multibeam sonar or mass spectrometers on board allows improvements in that knowledge. However, the prospect of Arctic drilling in the Greenland Sea, Baffin Bay and Beaufort Sea raises a host of new questions, especially in the light of the Gulf accident of 2010. These include
Aims The workshop is subtitled “Past, present and future” because we envisage some of the original oil researchers from the early research period transferring their knowledge to those committed to tackling the under-ice oil spill problem as recognised today, with the hope of avoiding a serious environmental catastrophe in the future. The fruitful interactions between young and old researchers will help to make the workshop especially productive. Key invited speakers ensure that existing research is fully covered. We invite scientists, engineers and policy makers to address:
The ultimate question to answer is: How can we design an effective, integrated system for dealing with every aspect of a potential accident in ice covered waters which involves the release of oil? |