All-weather situational awareness for offshore operations incorporates oil on water information, vessel traffic updates, and metocean conditions. A broad-area strategic view can be used to cue other surveillance tools (e.g., aircraft, vessels, aerostats, etc.), reduce costs, mitigate risks to personnel and the environment, and improve operational knowledge.
Routine broad-area monitoring of offshore installations by satellites is a proven technology that increases awareness of oil on water occurrences that may have been caused by natural seep activity, nearby operations, pipeline leaks, or illegal dumping by vessels in the area. The success of emergency response efforts during an oil on water event depends on the rapid delivery of multi-faceted surveillance and its integration into existing information systems.
The MDA Oil Tracker™ Rapid Alert/Complete service provides offshore operators with electronic delivery of near-real time alerts of oil on water incidents around their operations. This service includes the regular acquisition and archiving of radar imagery over specified areas of interest, as well as near-real time image analysis and reporting of oil on water events. This information helps during the critical first 48 hours of an event, by providing accurate information for the rapid development of a safe, effective response effort.
MDA Oil Tracker™ Reports include highly accurate wind direction reports that, when combined with sea state information, provide more accurate analysis to locate the likely source of oil and its expected trajectory on the ocean surface. With the MDA Oil Tracker™ Rapid Alert service, experienced MDA analysts review each satellite acquisition immediately following downlink at the company’s processing facility to identify possible oil on water within a pre-defined area around customer operating facilities. If the analysis indicates the presence of oil, a Rapid Alert is sent, showing the extent and location of oil near key facilities to a pre-defined list of recipients on the operator’s team.
The MDA Oil Tracker™ Complete program includes the systematic delivery of data acquired including all imagery and analysis reports. The MDA Oil Tracker™ Complete program is aimed at offshore operators or regulators who need reliable oil on water analysis and the ability to build a local evidentiary archive.