Oil, Finland simulates a spill in the Arctic Ocean: it would be a nightmare
Energy — di Andrea Barolini
A Finnish public company has simulated the recovery of oil spilled at sea beneath the ice cap, in extreme weather conditions.
Oil, Finland simulates a spill in the Arctic Ocean: it would be a nightmare
A Finnish public company has simulated the recovery of oil spilled at sea beneath the ice cap, in extreme weather conditions.
"Millions of litres of crude oil are spreading beneath the ice cap. Special vessels are working day and night in an attempt to contain the oil spill, but conditions are prohibitive: the winter cold, the wind, the prolonged darkness, the ice and the thick fog are preventing the hundreds of personnel and vehicles deployed on site from operating at the speed that would be necessary. The hours, meanwhile, are passing, and the scenario is looking more and more like a catastrophe."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupMfjv5ctA&nohtml5=False
Maritime traffic in the Arctic region has increased
Fortunately, this is not an account of something that actually happened. But the threat is real. And that is why the Finnish public company Arctia decided to find out in concrete terms what would happen if its icebreakers were really called upon to attempt to recover oil from beneath an Arctic sea. "First of all, we would need to separate the oil from the ice," a specialist on board the vessel "Atho" explains to the AFP agency, "because we certainly couldn't bring everything ashore."
Even today (despite some reversals due to the cost of operations and the fall in the price of oil), numerous oil companies are drilling in the Arctic region and an accident cannot be ruled out. But the threat also comes from the many oil tankers crossing the area: a number that has been steadily growing in recent years, as a result of global atmospheric warming, which has expanded the navigable zones.
The test carried out in the Baltic Sea
In order to recreate the conditions of the North Pole as faithfully as possible, Arctia decided to carry out the test in the waters of the Baltic Sea. The area lends itself particularly well to this type of exercise, being half covered in ice in winter. With 350,000 ship crossings per year, moreover, it could itself fall victim to a disaster.
And were an oil spill to occur here, the difficulties would not be limited to the extreme weather conditions, but would also include the force of the currents, sea conditions and the fact that in the Arctic Ocean one can find oneself days of sailing away from the major northern ports. The situation, in short, could resemble that of 24 March 1989, when Alaska was devastated by the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster, which spilled 42 million litres of crude oil into the sea, causing one of the worst environmental catastrophes in history.