Unraveling deepwater oil blowouts at different depths: A coupled experimental and modeling study

Abstract

Recent offshore oil spill incidents have raised public concern over subsea blowouts in oil and gas operations. To improve and validate the accuracy of current oil spill models the scientific community has identified the need for additional experimental data under deepwater environmental conditions. This study intends to address this challenge through laboratory experiments simulating oil blowouts under various high-pressure subsea conditions. Results of critical constituents such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX), total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and total oil content in water columns improved our understanding of the chemical composition of deepwater oil spills. Microscopy analysis revealed that most oil droplets suspended in the water had diameters of less than 20 μm, constituting over 98 % of the total extractable oil mass. Dissolved BTEX and total PAHs accounted for less than 2 % of the total extractable oil. Our findings showed that as the blowout depth increased, the resulting oil concentration in water also increased. Water temperature and pressure significantly affected the retention of small oil droplets in the water at near-blowout locations. These results provide key insights into deepwater oil behavior and offer valuable data for testing and validation of developed and developing oil spill models.