By Sjur H. Wie (Metas AS) and Efdal Çolpan (Laser Diagnostic Instruments AS)

Oil spills are disastrous for the environment and the economy, and not just the large, well-known spills. Small oil discharges occur daily in regions of intense oil exploration that, left undetected, have the potential to develop into major events. Public and private organizations have emphasized an ongoing need to detect and monitor accidental oil discharges in marine environments to prevent major events and mitigate environmental impacts.

Traditional methods of detecting accidental oil discharges—satellites and manned overflights—can be expensive and provide limited spatial and temporal coverage.

• Satellites offer spatial resolution but pass over a specific point only once every 16 days (on average), and clouds or smoke can mask the area entirely.
• Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites might detect oil through clouds and smoke but are not available continuously, and can be expensive.
• Manned overflights are weather dependent and at times costly.

On Sunday, October 3rd, Amplify Energy announced that they had a substantial leak on their heavy crude oil pipeline from the Beta field west of Huntington Beach, CA. Oil was first observed at surface by ships in the area and eventually satellite images were able to capture the sheen on the surface six hours after the first report from ships.

Very quickly the oil pollution made it to nearby beaches and wetlands where wildlife was clearly harmed, including dead fish and oil covered birds. Amplify Energy stock plummeted to less than 50% of its previous value. The leak is now estimated at 144,000 gallons of crude oil.

This isn’t the first time a problem with oil and gas infrastructure in the sea has resulted in an environmental disaster. There is a long list of incidents of this nature around the world and they have been happening since oil production began and waste products were dumped in rivers. The difference is we now understand the damage we are doing to the planet and the risk these activities pose. Just 4 years ago, in October 2017 a larger leak occurred in the Gulf of Mexico releasing more than 600,000 gallons of unprocessed crude oil from a cracked subsea pipe. This release was also not recognized before the oil had reached surface and was spotted by aircraft almost 24 hours after the leak started. BSEE is struggling to implement regulations to require monitoring of this subsea equipment for leakage and has had to rely heavily on the self-regulation of the oil industry, pushing oil and gas companies to make up their own rules on how to monitor for leaks.

The most advanced country in the world when it comes to regulations for oil and gas leak detection is Norway, where they have had requirements for subsea leak detection in their regulations for over a decade. Surprisingly, a recent audit found that the oil and gas operators in Norway aren’t meeting those strict requirements. This is a global problem and a black eye for the oil industry, even as many oil and gas companies strive to join or lead the global energy transition, they still are not investing in the technology and tools that can help prevent these disasters from reaching catastrophic proportions.

The bright side of the Norwegian regulations is the encouragement to develop technology to meet the regulatory requirements to detect and map subsea leakage of oil and gas.

Funded by both the Norwegian Research Council and Equinor has led to the recent deployment of Active Acoustic Leak Detectors with ranges in the miles and detection sensitivity down to a single gallon. The company behind this development is Metas AS, an environmental monitoring company that spun out of the Institute for Marine Research a decade ago. The founders took their expertise in sonar systems and marine research and developed several tools to enable rapid detection and mapping of subsea hydrocarbon leakage to sea. This system is field proven to detect in active oil and gas fields, without nuisance false alarms, the Metas Subsea Leak Detection family of products.

These products range from their Wide Area Active Monitoring (WAAM) system that employs scanning sonar and machine learning to not just identify leakage early but tracking and measure the quantity discharged, to their Specified Area Active Monitoring (SAAM) system to monitor pipelines and remote infrastructure where power and communications aren’t available. In addition to detecting hydrocarbon leaks, the Metas systems will also detect, identify and locate any foreign object that comes into the active sonar range, like monitoring of marine life, following ROV’s, submarines, and dropped objects like a ship’s anchor. Everything located within a few meters accuracy. In this case with a potential dropped anchor causing the pipeline rupture, the actual ship can quickly be identified by location and AIS (Automatic Identification System), and evidence and further legal action would be much easier.

Laser Diagnostic Instruments AS manufactures autonomous non-contact sensors that detect oil on water and Spectral Fluorescence Signatures Analyzers to detect and analyze fingerprints of compounds.

• Remote Optical Watcher (ROW) is a non-contact and autonomous sensor to monitor oil spills on water in real-time. ROW sensors can be powered with solar panels and batteries on buoys and offshore platforms to send instant remote alerts.
• ROW sensor networks can provide an environmental baseline for regions where natural and accidental oil incidents often occur.
• Active real-time monitoring can prevent new spills from developing into major catastrophes, and in the event of a major spill, emergency responders can be deployed immediately before the spill gets out of hand.

Special thanks to Sjur H. Wie (Metas AS) and Efdal Çolpan (Laser Diagnostic Instruments AS) for contributing to this article. Visit their storefront to learn more about their technology.