Deep-sea oil leakage rapid measurement technology come out

The American Physicist Organization Network reported on September 5 that in order to accurately detect oil leakage in the Malacca oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, scientists at the Woods Hole Institute of Oceanography (WHOI) in the US developed a variety of advanced detection technologies. The method of measurement and calculation, focused on obtaining accurate and high-quality data in a busy and stressful situation, plays a key role in assessing the environmental impact of oil spills. The report was published on the September 5 issue of the National Academy of Sciences.

One of the most important technologies is the acoustic detection technology for measuring the liquid flow rate with a confidence level of 83%. The researchers installed two types of acoustic instruments on a remote-sensing vehicle called the Maxx3. One is an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), which measures the change in Doppler sound frequency; the other is a multi-velocity sonar. The imager can form black and white images at the intersection of oil and gas to distinguish whether oil or gas is escaping in seawater.

“Aiming the injected oil and gas with an acoustic Doppler velocity profiler, we can know their injection velocity based on the change in the echo frequency from the injection.” said the paper's lead author, Richard Kemiri, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Says, "These acoustic technologies are like X-rays. They can see the inside of the fluid and detect the speed of the flow and collect large amounts of data in a very short period of time." This method can directly detect the source of oil well leakage and can master the entire crude oil before oil is dispersed. Flow, more than 85,000 measurements were obtained within minutes.

Kemiri also connected through satellites at the site of the spill, and analyzed the data with other members of the research team. He used a computer model to simulate the turbulence of oil jets and estimated the speed at which oil flows out of the pipe. Using the collected sonar images of more than 2,500 jets of crude oil, the area of ​​the area covered by the oil spill was calculated, and the amount of oil and gas leaked was calculated by multiplying the average area and the average flow velocity.

In addition, they also used the IGT developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to collect crude oil samples from wells and calculate the ratio of oil and gas in wells. The results showed that the well jets contained 77% oil, 22% natural gas, and no To 1% of other gases. These data allow researchers to have an estimate of the outflow of crude oil and then calculate the precise flow.

According to the Flow Technical Group (FRTG) report, since April 20 last year until July 15th, the company sealed a total of 5 million barrels of crude oil, leaking 57,000 barrels of crude oil and 100 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day. Through accurate calculations, engineers can better understand the conditions below the sea surface, design plugging schemes, calculate how much dispersant is needed, and formulate strategies for re-control of oil wells, collection of oil spills, and reduction of environmental pollution.

“Over the past 10 years, ultra-deep oil platforms have grown from scratch, producing 1/3 of the Gulf of Mexico, and this demand is still increasing.” Kemi said that these new tools are our capabilities for monitoring the deep seas. The proofs, which represent new discoveries in flow velocity research and a comprehensive data analysis method, provide a hard statistical assessment method that analyzes the early-stage uncertainty of the entire system.

The co-author of the paper, Chris Reddy, said that these new technology devices are expected to be used in future deep-sea horizon drilling rigs to help monitor potential problems in oil well facilities.