THE GULF OIL SPILL
DEEPWATER HORIZON RESPONSE
As everybody is aware the situation is worsening by the day. Now staging areas have been set up to contain and recover the oil hitting coastal areas, beaches, swamps, rocky foreshores and rivers are all under threat of oil contamination.
OPEC has been communicating with contractors and with BP to assist where possible in the supply of services to aid the response effort.
Over the years OPEC has developed a number of products and techniques to deal with oil spills at sea and along the coast.
The ‘E-Series' Mop skimmer machine uses a polypropylene oil mop which can be laid out along a ‘sacrificial beach' area in a purpose built trench in the sand to recover oil as it washes ashore.
The images below illustrate the use of the machine in this application. In particular this was a response to a pipeline spill and clearly shows the way in which this can be done along the Louisiana coast line.
Other skimming configurations include using a shallow draft small vessel to get amongst the swamp areas and again using the ‘E-Series' machine can be used to great effect clearing the slicks.
