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Technical sphere news | Tue, 07/30/2024 - 12:00

BLOWHAZARD Web App: A hazard assessment system for subsea oil spills caused by well blowouts in offshore installations

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IHCantabria develops the prototype of the BlowHazard Web App: a system for hazard assessment of oil spills caused by blowouts accidents in oil and gas offshore facilities. In the event of an oil well blowout, the system provides, in real-time, the area potentially affected by the hydrocarbon at certain thresholds of concern and the time of arrival at the coastal area. The prototype has been implemented in the North Sea, verifying its capabilities in a real environment.       

IHCantabria has reached the final stretch of the BlowHazard project, which offers an innovative system for hazard analysis of oil spills derived from oil well blowouts in oil and gas offshore installations. This is an innovative project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research Agency, and the European funds Next Generation EU, within the framework of the Call 2021 – Proof of Concept Projects.

The main objective of this project was to design, develop and implement the BlowHazard system, providing real-time information on the affected area, the probability of contamination on the coast and the arrival time in case of potential incidents.  

To meet these objectives, IHCantabria’s research staff designed and structured the functionality of the BlowHazard system, based on the following concepts:  

use on long-term (27 years) hindcast databases of met-ocean conditions, obtained from the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) ocean physics reanalysis for the North-West European Shelf and ERA 5 dataset, available at the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store;  

use of innovative methodologies based on data mining techniques to obtain spatio-temporal wind and current patterns (400 spatio-temporal patterns) in the study site and for the optimization of the numerical modelling;

the use of supercomputing to generate a large number of simulations (> 5000 simulations performed under 400 metocean patterns and taking into account different spill volume, spill rates and spill duration) that represent the casuistry of accidental spills that may occur in oil wells; and  

in the development of a Web Application that, in a simple way for the user, allows its use in real time to support the response in case of an accident.

The main product of this project is the BlowHazard Web Application, which will contribute to improve risk assessment procedures for accidental subsea oil spills (blowouts) in offshore oil and gas facilities. It allows users to evaluate, in real time, the areas affected by oil, the probability of contamination on the coast and the time of arrival in the coastal zone. The prototype of this Web Application was successfully implemented in the North Sea, one of the regions of the world with the largest presence of offshore oil industry installations.

The BlowHazard App will contribute to improve the environmental and social performance of the oil sector as well as the prevention and response to accidental pollution from offshore activities, which will contribute to environmental protection and conservation of seas, ocean, and coastal areas, responding to the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The BlowHazard App is a result of the project PDC2021-120892-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union Next GenerationEU/PRTR.       

 PARTNERS : 

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