| Summary: | The purpose of this thesis was to screen and analyze existing technologies for the oil spill responses, focusing on the Arctic region. This thesis relates to the Joint Industry Project 2, run by the major oil companies, the reason of which is to determine the efficient and reliable methods for the worst possible scenarios of the oil spillages in harsh conditions of the Arctic seas. The contingency plan for the oil spill response is vital for establishing oil and gas exploration and production in the mentioned region. The main topics discussed are the methods and technologies applied for the oil spill liquidation; however the work also describes the monitoring principles of the spills, the oil properties and the largest oil spill accidents in the Arctic seas. It also mentions regulations applied for the oil exploration in the Arctic region and the distribution of the offshore zones. All these topics are essential to understand the total picture of the upstream operations of oil and gas in the Arctic region and possible consequences of the accidents. The evaluation of the technologies is based on many parameters, presented further in the work. One of the criteria besides the specific weather conditions, costs and limitations of the technologies is the ability to handle large inflow volumes. The volumes were calculated according to the three worst case scenarios, also presented in this thesis. In the conclusion there is given a brief comparison between the remediation methods and technologies described. In the end of the work it is concluded that the most reliable and promising method for the oil spill cleanup in this case is the mechanical recovery, based on the essential parameters taken into account when choosing the technology. Namely on this method the emphasis is given for the further investigations and development in this JIP2 project.
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