588
and production is now occurring was severely lacking prior to DWH and only
slightly less so now (Cordes et al. 2008; Fisher et al. 2016; Sutton et al. 2020;
Romero et al. 2018). These deep regions account for over half of the known species
of fishes in the GoM (Sutton et al. 2020), and recent expeditions there continue to
document range extensions and in some cases additional new species (Sutton et al.
2020). In order to adequately define environmental sensitivity to oil production
operations and spills, a more complete accounting for the extant diversity of species
and their productivity and sensitivity to oil contamination (Romero et al. 2018) is
necessary, but such data were not routinely collected prior to DWH. This also
extends to marine mammals, sea turtles, birds, and other ecosystem components
extant in and dependent upon deep seas.
34.3 What We Know Now…
Subsequent to the DWH accident, about $1 billion has been spent at this writing to
conduct impact assessments, to monitor species and human health impacts, and to
develop fundamental science for many diverse aspects of deepwater blowouts and
their effects. Additionally, the oil and gas industry and individual companies have
underwritten technological innovations for various aspects of ultra-deep production, well control, and response protocols with the goals of minimizing the frequency of such accidents to as close to zero as is possible, containing uncontrolled
blowouts in a more timely manner, and minimizing spill impacts to the ecosystem
and people. The breath of new knowledge gained from this massive infusion of
resources, partially synthesized herein and in a companion volume “Scenarios and
Responses to Future Deep Oil Spills – Fighting the Next War (Murawski et al.
2020b) is impressive. This new research, conducted primarily since 2010, modernizes our view of the deep ocean environment and the interplay between the subbottom oil reservoir, the oil extraction infrastructure, and the pelagic realm. Complex
physics and chemistry of a very hot oil (>100 °C at the base of the blowout preventer, BOP) under considerable pressure, discharging into a cold (~4.5 °C) environment create a chaotic transition from a single-phase hydrocarbon jet to a
multiphase flow (oil, gas, water) that rapidly disperses both horizontally and vertically. The behavior of the multiphase flow and its components (e.g., dissolving oil
and gas components and particlized oil droplets) interacts with mitigation techniques (e.g., the application of SSDI) in ways not yet fully understood. Nevertheless,
laboratory studies at multiple scales confirm that both “natural” processes and the
use of chemical dispersants each contribute to formation and sequestration of small
oil droplets in deep-sea blowouts (Chaps. 2, 3, 4, and 5).
The DWH accident, occurring seaward of the Mississippi River delta, apparently had all the necessary antecedents for the formation of a large MOSSFA
event (Chaps. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18). Considerable experimentation and
some modeling work have quantified the requirements for MOSSFA formation
S. A. Murawski et al.
and production is now occurring was severely lacking prior to DWH and only
slightly less so now (Cordes et al. 2008; Fisher et al. 2016; Sutton et al. 2020;
Romero et al. 2018). These deep regions account for over half of the known species
of fishes in the GoM (Sutton et al. 2020), and recent expeditions there continue to
document range extensions and in some cases additional new species (Sutton et al.
2020). In order to adequately define environmental sensitivity to oil production
operations and spills, a more complete accounting for the extant diversity of species
and their productivity and sensitivity to oil contamination (Romero et al. 2018) is
necessary, but such data were not routinely collected prior to DWH. This also
extends to marine mammals, sea turtles, birds, and other ecosystem components
extant in and dependent upon deep seas.
34.3 What We Know Now…
Subsequent to the DWH accident, about $1 billion has been spent at this writing to
conduct impact assessments, to monitor species and human health impacts, and to
develop fundamental science for many diverse aspects of deepwater blowouts and
their effects. Additionally, the oil and gas industry and individual companies have
underwritten technological innovations for various aspects of ultra-deep production, well control, and response protocols with the goals of minimizing the frequency of such accidents to as close to zero as is possible, containing uncontrolled
blowouts in a more timely manner, and minimizing spill impacts to the ecosystem
and people. The breath of new knowledge gained from this massive infusion of
resources, partially synthesized herein and in a companion volume “Scenarios and
Responses to Future Deep Oil Spills – Fighting the Next War (Murawski et al.
2020b) is impressive. This new research, conducted primarily since 2010, modernizes our view of the deep ocean environment and the interplay between the subbottom oil reservoir, the oil extraction infrastructure, and the pelagic realm. Complex
physics and chemistry of a very hot oil (>100 °C at the base of the blowout preventer, BOP) under considerable pressure, discharging into a cold (~4.5 °C) environment create a chaotic transition from a single-phase hydrocarbon jet to a
multiphase flow (oil, gas, water) that rapidly disperses both horizontally and vertically. The behavior of the multiphase flow and its components (e.g., dissolving oil
and gas components and particlized oil droplets) interacts with mitigation techniques (e.g., the application of SSDI) in ways not yet fully understood. Nevertheless,
laboratory studies at multiple scales confirm that both “natural” processes and the
use of chemical dispersants each contribute to formation and sequestration of small
oil droplets in deep-sea blowouts (Chaps. 2, 3, 4, and 5).
The DWH accident, occurring seaward of the Mississippi River delta, apparently had all the necessary antecedents for the formation of a large MOSSFA
event (Chaps. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18). Considerable experimentation and
some modeling work have quantified the requirements for MOSSFA formation
S. A. Murawski et al.