Development of common Norway-Russia accepted procedures for decision making on dispersants application in the Barents Sea

In the last decade, in the search for new oil field, the oil and gas industry has been moving Northward into the Barents Sea, in both parts, the Norwegian and Russian sectors. As industrial activities increase in the Arctic, there are increasing risks for accidental discharges of crude oil. Such accident can be pipeline leakages, well blow out, oil transfer at terminals, ships running aground etc. Once the spill occur, there are several options to mitigate the impact on the environment: in situ burning, m echanical recovery, bioremediation, chemical dispersion etc. Among those, chemical dispersion has regained a lot of interest from the industry and the authorities following the Macondo accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, by injecting dispersant right at the top of the well, the industry demonstrated the efficiency of the dispersion, to enhance natural dilution and degradation. However, this raised lot of concerns about the environmental impact. In this respect, our objectives is to develop a proposal for PETROMAKS II with an industry partner (Total Fluids) to assess the environmental impact of a variety of dispersants in Arctic waters and to develop a common Norwegian-Russian strategy for dispersant use in the Barents Sea. We have organized a 3 day wo rkshop with Total FLuids, APN, CEDRE with participation of Vladimir Pavlenko to set the main lines of a research project and identify russian partners. We wish to run two workshops to meet the Russian partners in St Petersburg, VNIRO and SEVNIIRH which ar e responsible of the toxicological part of such project to calculate a maximum permissible concentration (MPC), and CNIIMF which elaborate oil spill contingency plans and instructions. This first workshop will aim at agreeing on the main line of a project . The second workshop will be at Arkanghelsk for the PETROMAKS meeting to present the research concept. A final proposal will be submitted to PETROMAKS in October 2013.