Safety Aspects of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Waters
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Safety Aspects of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations in Arctic and Sub-Arctic Waters Tarantola, S., Rossotti, A., Flitris, E. 2019 EUR 29572 EN This publication is a Technical report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of this publication. For information on the methodology and quality underlying the data used in this publication for which the source is neither Eurostat nor other Commission services, users should contact the referenced source. The designations employed and the presentation of material on the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the European Union concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Contact information Name: Marcelo Masera Address: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Tel.: (+31) 224 565403 EU Science Hub https://ec.europa.eu/jrc JRC114560 EUR 29572 EN PDF ISBN 978-92-79-98398-6 ISSN 1831-9424 doi:10.2760/866261 Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019 © European Union, 2019 The reuse policy of the European Commission is implemented by the Commission Decision 2011/833/EU of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39). Except otherwise noted, the reuse of this document is authorised under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed provided appropriate credit is given and any changes are indicated. For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not owned by the EU, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holders. All content © European Union, 2019, except: [cover page: pixabay.com; incredible Arctic, fotolia.com]; [images in chapters 2, 6, and 7, sources mentioned inside the document] How to cite this report: Tarantola, S., Rossotti, A., Flitris, E., Safety Aspects of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations in Arctic and sub-arctic Waters, EUR 29572 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-79-98398-6, doi:10.2760/866261, JRC114560. Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2 The Arctic area ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Geographical description of the Arctic area ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 The Arctic climate........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 9 2.3 Spatial distribution of Oil & Gas fields ................................................................................................................................................................ 11 2.4 Arctic continental shelf claims..................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 2.4.1 Arctic Territorial or Maritime Disputes which have been resolved ......................................................................... 15 2.4.2 Arctic Territorial or Maritime Disputes which remain unresolved ........................................................................... 16 2.5 Drilling activities ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 17 2.6 Costs of oil production in the Arctic Seas ......................................................................................................................................................... 18 2.6.1 Factors that shape the prices of Arctic oil production ........................................................................................................ 18 2.6.2 Market conditions ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 3 Winterisation standards................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 DNV GL rules for mobile offshore units ............................................................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 DNV GL offshore Arctic standards ........................................................................................................................................................................... 21 3.3 Anti-icing and anti-freezing measures ................................................................................................................................................................ 24 3.4 De-icing measures .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 24 3.5 Selection of metallic material ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 26 3.6 Selection of non-metallic material and electronic components .................................................................................................. 26 3.7 Other technical issues and solutions ..................................................................................................................................................................... 26 4 Pollution in the Arctic environment from offshore Oil & Gas activities ............................................................................................ 28 5 Safety and contingency plans in the Arctic ................................................................................................................................................................... 33 5.1 The safety issue ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 33 5.2 Contingency plans .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 6 Accidents on Arctic and sub-Arctic offshore installations .............................................................................................................................. 38 6.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 38 6.2 Accident Database................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 39 6.3 Landmark Accidents .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 45 6.3.1 Kolskaya jack-up drilling rig (Sea of Okhotsk, 17 Dec 2011) ...................................................................................... 45 6.3.2 Kulluk conical drilling rig (Gulf of Alaska, 31 Dec 2017) ................................................................................................. 47 7 Recent research activities .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 50 7.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................