A hindcast of the Bohai Bay oil spill during June to August 2011

An operational three-dimensional oil spill model is developed by the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC), State Oceanic Administration, China, and the model has been running for 9 a. On June 4 and 17, 2011, oil is spilled into the sea water from two separate oil platforms in the Bohai Bay, i.e., Platforms B and C of Penglai 19-3 oilfield. The spill causes pollution of thousands of square kilometres of sea area. The NMEFC’s oil spill model is employed to study the Penglai 19-3 oil-spill pollution during June to August 2011. The wind final analysis data of the NMEFC, which is based on a weather research and forecasting (WRF) model, are analyzed and corrected by comparing with the observation data. A corrected current filed is obtained by forcing the princeton ocean model (POM) with the corrected wind field. With the above marine environmental field forcing the oil spill model, the oil mass balance and oil distribution can be produced. The simulation is validated against the observation, and it is concluded that the oil spill model of the NMEFC is able to commendably simulate the oil spill distribution. Thus the NMEFC’s oil spill model can provide a tool in an environmental impact assessment after the event.