Assessing Progress and Benefits of Oil Spill Response Technology Development Since Exxon Valdez

This paper describes a simple approach to quantifying progress and benefits associated with improvements in oil spill removal technology over the past decade, focusing on the most significant oil removal technologies: mechanical recovery, dispersant application and in-situ burning. All three technologies have been the focus of research and development (R&D) efforts since the Exxon Valdez spill. Notable progress has been made in refining the technologies and defining circumstances under which each option will be successful. These accomplishments have been qualitatively described in recent strategic technology assessments. The difficulty that arises in quantitatively predicting future benefits of these advances, is that expected increases in oil removal and associated cost savings are as much a function of specific circumstances of future spills as of advances in spill removal technologies. The specifics of future spills, particularly the larger more troublesome ones, are difficult to predict. In order to obtain representative quantitative estimates of these benefits, a hind-cast technique is demonstrated whereby the advanced technologies are applied to past spill scenarios to determine oil recovery and cost savings that would be realized if these spills were to occur in the future