U.S. NAVY SALVAGE REPORT DEEPWATER HORIZON ... - ESSM

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response
worth considering. As a part of the IATAP, SUPSALV and GPC personnel participated in
evaluation of the following systems:
• A WHALE – In late June, a 340-meter converted commercial oil carrier outfitted with a
ventilated bow and oil separation equipment within the inner hull offered its services in
support of the oil spill cleanup operation. Its owner claimed the ship could skim millions
of gallons of oily water per day so the task force arranged for IATAP trials. SUPSALV
through its PCCI representative, Bob Urban, participated in the 2 – 4 July trials. Results
of the trials follow:
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The large pulsing flow of water out of the jaw chambers defeated oil collection
operations for most of the two day trial. Unless all waves were well below 0.5
meters, no oil could be collected. It was necessary to keep the speed below 0.5
knots as well; going faster caused enough bow wave to push surface oil away
from the bow’s openings.
Unless wing tanks were fully stripped, no significant oil would be transferred into
the center cargo tanks. These tanks were not stripped during the first two test
days.
The ship’s ability to maneuver into the oil patches was impressive. The crew was
able to control speed and angle of the ship to create a lee on one side of the bow.
The use of an oil boom to sweep the area is the most critical part of A WHALE's
configuration as a skimmer. Prior to the tests, no planning or arrangements had
been made to prepare the vessel to accept a boom. Attempts to attach a boom
during trials were awkward at best and dangerous at worst.
No sufficient volume of oil was recovered during the tests therefore the IATAP
was unable to fully evaluate the performance of A WHALE as an oil / water
separator. The IATAP team did not see any tools with which the crew could
measure the oil content or collect samples from the cascading tanks (Port and
starboard wing tanks to #1 center to #5 center to #3 center) during the
settling/stripping process.
• VOSS Crabbing – Coast Guard, NOFI representative (manufacturers of Current Buster
VOSS) and SUPSALV representatives met in Houma ICP on 8 June to discuss ways to
increase the efficiency of the Class XI and Current Buster systems. The ICS authorized
IATAP trials to be conducted where the OSV, using its dynamic positioning (DP) system,
would vary its point of attack and speed over the trial to see if improvements in efficiency
could be gained. LT Shaun Hayes (00C2OA) and PCCI’s Bob Urban participated in the
trials using a 205’ OSV and a NOFI Current Buster. The concept was to use the side of
the vessel as part of the boom to channel oil to the rear of the vessel increasing the width
of the skimming system. A sketch depicting the concept of crabbing is provided as Figure
5-14. A 16 June, 2011 white paper concluded single vessel skimming efficiencies could
be improved by increasing the effective encounter width through use of crabbing
practices. A copy of this report is included as Appendix D.
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