CMEMS AND CYCOFOS ASSESSING THE POLLUTION RISK FROM THE LEVIATHAN OFFSHORE PLATFORM IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA

This research is an assessment and risk analysis of the potential pollution from the Leviathan offshore platform operation and malfunction events and from a pipe rupture which connects the Leviathan offshore platform Pressure Reducing & Metering Stations (PRMS) output to the ‘Shore Reception Station’, located at 10 km and 1 km respectively from the Israeli shoreline. The research simulates spills of condensate and diesel fuel. For the spill simulations met-ocean data from the CMEMS Med MFC, CYCOFOS, SKIRON and ECMWF which are covering the time period of 2015-2018 were used. Robust statistics were estimated by performing 5,844 spill simulations for condensate leakage and by having additional 5,844 spill simulations for the diesel-oil, both spills are from the Leviathan offshore platform. For having the pipe line rupture the robust statistics was calculated from 104 spill simulations for the condensate. The main conclusions obtained from the spill simulations for the Leviathan offshore platform, show that the fi rst oil arrival at the Israeli coast is predicted to be within 8 hours after start of the spillage in winter, and within 11 hours in summer. The first impacted area is the coast between Zichron-Ya’akov/Dor and Atlit, located south of Haifa. In winter time, in average, it is predicted that 17% of the condensate spillage is beached, while in summer the amount of landed oil is doubled. Similarly, the pipe rupture condensate spillage shows that the fi rst impact on the coast is predicted within 5−6 hours in winter, and within 3−4 hours in summer. The coast of Zichron-Ya’akov is estimated with the highest condensate deposition, up to a maximum of 15 tons/km, regardless the season. Due to the proximity of the pipe rupture to the shore, it is predicted that 38−40% of the condensate beached to the nearby shore without any significant seasonal or monthly variability. The condensate spillage from the Leviathan offshore platform will affect mostly the Hadera desalination plant. The results of the current study employing thousands of spill simulations is compared against results of a total of 12 spill simulations which were carried out in the frame of previous studies of the Leviathan energy project.