Submerged Oil Working Group

 Sunken Oil Transfer Tool is now available!

With increased reliance on heavier crude oils and refined products to fill the current energy demands, the proportion of oil spills involving subsurface oil is also on the rise. Submerged oils provide unique response challenges in oil detection, tracking, remobilization, fate and transport modeling, containment, and recovery.

In light of these challenges, the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) have partnered to address the detection, monitoring, modeling and recovery of submerged oil and are committed to coordinating programs and leveraging resources to better address these issues.

To better coordinate and direct these research efforts, CRRC hosted a Submerged Oil - State of Practice workshop on December 12-13, 2006. View the Submerged Oil workshop  to evaluate the state of the practice and identify research needs to improve response to and restoration of spills of submerged oil. The overall workshop goal was to work together to identify research needs information on submerged oil pertaining to the following response and restoration topics:

• Detection and Monitoring
• Fate and Transport
• Containment and Recovery (including Protection of Water Intakes)
• Effects and Restoration

Submerged Oil Workshop Report 

This Submerged Oil Working Group was a direct outcome of this 2006 workshop and continues to meet annually in order to collaborate on proposed research regarding submerged oil.