Organizations
IAOGP
Primary
In-Situ Burning of Oil in Ice – Affected Waters
Controlled in-situ burning (ISB) of an oil slick as a response technology has been researched and employed in one form or another at a variety of oil spills since the late 1950s, including limited use during the Exxon Valdez accident and more extensive use during the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Many researchers and practitioners believe that ISB is especially suitable in ice conditions; early research and development on ISB, which focused on its use for spills on and under solid sea ice, demonstrated its effectiveness in large-scale experimental spills in the Beaufort Sea in 1975 and 1980.
More recently, high-level research has addressed using ISB for spills of various concentrations in pack ice and especially in slush and brash ice. The technique has proved very effective for thick oil spills in high ice concentrations and has been used successfully to remove oil spills resulting from pipeline, storage tank and ship accidents in ice-covered waters in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia.
