Personnel from AllMaritim and NOFI Tromsø, as well as personnel from ORC, have been present in the Mexico Gulf since the very beginning in assisting BP with deployment, operations and in getting personnel and vessels trained to operate the different Buster units. The different systems are being operated by two vessels or by a single vessel using the ORC BoomVane system.

After a few minor challenges finding the right vessels and getting the most appropriate skimmers, the Busters are performing very efficiently covering large areas at high towing speeds and providing superb conditions for skimming. In the Mexico Gulf there is a offshore current of approximately 1-2 knots, which in contrast to conventional booms are perfect conditions for the Buster-series – high speed containment system. Area coverage and superb technology regarding separation of the contained oil results in very satisfactory recovery rate as pure oil are being pumped.

The biggest challenge in operation has been to find the best suitable skimmers being capable of pumping not only oil but also sea weeds mixed with the oil.

Below, we have listed some information on the recovery rates from the different Busters presently in operation. The figures are unofficial as they are gathered from our own personnel; however, they represent copies of logs from different vessels operating the systems.

E.g.
-    Vessel “PB” operating 2 x Current Busters incl ORC BoomVanes, average of 190-225 barrels within a period of 2-4 hours.

-    Vessels “CC” & “SS”, 1 x Ocean Buster, approximately 200-240 barrels within a period of 2-4 hours.

The skimming vessel, ML, may have recovered oil, pure oil, from the above vessels 3 times per work day as well as offloading the recovered oil to a barge.

-    Vessel “BR”, 1 x Ocean Buster incl ORC Ocean BoomVane and integrated pump unit, recovery rate 440 barrels in 4 hours.

Operator comments:
One official supervisor stated when offloading vessel “BR”:

Quote
This is the best recovery data in the Mexico Gulf by far of pure oil, no decontamination needed.
End Quote

Reports coming in from the various users of the Buster products are all very positive and we are pleased to be able to add another success story to our reference list, where the Buster technology has performed outstandingly.