Oil Spill Technology Improves, But Too Little and Too Late

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill from the collapsed BP (BP) Deepwater Horizon rig is a catastrophe. Approaching the magnitude of the Exxon Valdez spill, the connection has also fostered questions of how oil spill technology has changed over the years -- and the frequent answer of not very.

And yet, that's not entirely accurate. From imaging to modeling, high tech offers powerful tools to help plan strategies to fight the spill. However, there's a limit on what high tech can do -- especially when oil companies see little incentive to spend on preventative risk management and instead choose to largely depend on what government can provide.

For example, BP has asked for help from the Department of Defense for subsea imaging technology and remote operating equipment that are unavailable on commercial markets. Satellite imaging from NOAA as well as NASA is available to the Coast Guard in near real-time to monitor the surface progress of the spill for better resource planning. Until now, satellite images have appeared only as experiments in oil spill containment. Responders have also used floating automated data collectors that can provide a constant update on sea conditions rather than depending on uncertain forecasts.

But there are a few problems. One is that most of the new technology focuses on collecting visual and measurement data because various government agencies, which fund research, need those particular abilities for other purposes. It's just luck that they can also help in clean-up operations.

Another issue is that some technology that would seem a natural may not work in the current circumstances. For example supercomputer modeling should be able to help predict where the oil spill is going so that those trying to contain the disaster can act more effectively. Unfortunately, even basic information that would be fundamental for using such tools is sketchy. It took days for experts to realize that oil was likely coming out at 5,000 barrels a day, rather than the initial estimate of 1,000.

Some scientists have done work into better methods for removing oil. For example, nearly four years ago, researchers Victoria Broje and Arturo Keller created improved mechanical skimmer technology to better scrape oil off the surface of water and showed how a little rethinking can improve traditional tools. But oil companies have had little incentive in the past to invest in oil spill cleanup improvement:

The reason little has changed, said Byron W. King, an energy analyst at Agora Financial, is a "failure of imagination.""The industry says it never had a blowout," he said, and as a result the oil "industry is not going to spend good money on problems that it says aren't there." But King said that "you need new technology to deal with the problems that your other new technology got you." And he said that the federal government, instead of just collecting its royalties, should have made sure that research took place.

Image courtesy of NASA