With Norway’s background as a major oil producer and the State Pollution Control Author ity’s very str ict regulatory framework both for preventing oil spills and respond to oil spills AllMaritim and its two manufacturers, NOFI Tromsø and NOREN Bergen, have been able to develop and test in real life conditions oil spill response equipment that is well recognised in the international market.
Case studies
Traditional oil booms will fail in containing drifting oil above 0,7 to 0,9 knot towing speed (or current). More recently – after thorough testing carried out by the US Coast Guard in the OHMSETT test facilities – NOFI Tromsø succeeded in making a boom system with could contain and control drifting oil slicks at towing speeds (or currents) up to 3,5 knots without gross losses of oil. The first product introduced to the market a few years back was the NOFI Current Buster®, which has been joined by the NOFI Ocean Buster as well as a NOFI Harbour Buster the last couple of years.
The first NOFI Current Busters were sold to Alyeska Pipeline Service Company – SERVS, Valdez, Alaska for use primarily by their well-trained fishing vessels. The Current Buster was well received by fishermen in Prince William Sound and two systems were successfully deployed during the large “Windy Bay” diesel spill of 2001.
In recent years the Busters have logged some remarkable clean-up successes, most outstandingly during the “Rocknes” heavy fuel oil spill where, during a five hour tow-out of the capsized vessel, the Cur rent Buster alone contained and controlled more than 50 per cent of the recorded total recovery for the day. This, with more than 900 m of other conventional oil booms at sea. The “Rocknes” incident also proved the Current Buster’s high flexibility in moving from one drifting slick to another without losing any oil and then calling in a skimmer vessel when the Separator was observed to contain very thick layers of oil.
