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New IT platform to manage emergencies arising from oil spills

Oilfield Technology,


CLE Srl’s IT platform MLV® was introduced to the oil and gas industry last month at the Interspill fair in Amsterdam.

The final product, the culmination of over three years of research and development undertaken by CLE, is unique in its ability to gather, aggregate and process real time information from all the actors involved in services to prevent and manage emergencies arising from the spill of pollutants in water.

Minimising intervention times

The platform means that users can minimise intervention times and maximise their effectiveness, and the solution has proved of interest to about 10 world players in the ‘oil spill’ sector (petrol companies, port authorities and the organisations which run marine antipollution services), particularly in Great Britain, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Brazil and the Persian Gulf.

The platform, which complies with National and International regulations for the management of antipollution issues – including those of International Marine Organisation (IMO), European Maritime Security Agency (EMSA) and National Regulation – can be used to manage the complex activity of environmental control for the safekeeping of the marine environment along coasts, offshore and also in rivers and lakes.

The system can be used for the management of ordinary and emergency antipollution services, achieving optimisation of the use of personnel, of antipollution fleets and their equipment, the co-ordination of the activities of the people involved in the services and those of the regional and national authorities for the prevention and management of pollution (Coast Guard/Port Authority/Ministry of the Environment/Fire Brigade, etc). It can also track how supplied services and environmental problems evolved over time, with a consequent reduction of the risks of pollution.

Plan, control and co-ordinate in real time

The profoundly innovative element of the MLV computerised platform is its ability to plan, control and co-ordinate in real time all the activities which are carried out (from prevention and emergency intervention to the confirmation of environmental accidents) from pollution prevention fleet (tow-boats, support boats, and land-based vehicles, etc.), to specialised operators, logistic support structures (warehousing) and materials of various kinds (chemical dispersion agents, barriers, skimmers to vacuum up the pollutants, etc.). This particular quality means that it can be used to optimise each operation so that it is carried out at the right moment, thus supplying an informative tool, which is indispensable for checking activities, and co-ordinating with other organisations which have been commissioned to supply services of intervention. 

The technologies used

MLV aggregates data which comes from instruments which are installed both on antipollution fleets vessels and vehicles used on operations and on the control stations on land; specifically these are ordinary and infrared (or ultraviolet) cameras, weather stations, and marine traffic control services (including AIS and VTS). It integrates a GIS system to handle maps in support of the management of operations and can also be made available under a user license or as SAAS (Software As A Service).

MLV is ‘Web 2.0’ enabled, and can be used on PC’s and mobile apparatuses which means that operations using vessels, equipment and specialised personnel can be optimised and made time-effective. It thus supplies an informational tool that can be used to centralise, in the shortest possible time, all the data that have been gathered in the field, and to share them with the various agents involved in the antipollution operations.

Furthermore, the MLV platform helps to evaluate direct and correlated risks, reducing the possibility of more accidents occurring during operations as the result of lack of co-ordination and/or information. In this context the instruments used for data collection and monitoring play a vital role to support those who have to move around in the area (whether it be naval vessels, land-based vehicles or people who walk, etc.), or instruments which are placed in fixed positions can supply data which comes from the analysis of visual information gathered by cameras or by sensors which have been specifically developed to monitor the area.

Adapted from press release by Cecilia Rehn

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/07042015/new-it-platform-to-manage-emergencies-arising-from-oil-spills/

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