Numerical Modeling of Oil Spill Movement along North-West Coast of India Using GNOME

Abstract

India is located at a very strategic point with respect to the international commercial sea routes with a large amount of crude oil traffic. Hence, the risk of oil spill occurring in the Indian waters is considerably high. In the present paper, forecasting the movement of a possible crude oil spill of 10,000 barrels at a location of latitude 21° 41′ 48.53′ N and longitude 66° 46′ 41.45″ E, intersection point of two ship routes from Kandla port and Bombay port (Kandla port of India to Yanbu port of Saudi Arabia and Bombay port of India to Ras Tanura port of Saudi Arabia) has been carried out using GNOME (General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment) model developed by Hazardous Materials Response Division (HAZMAT) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Response and Restoration (NOAA OR&R) of United States government. The governing equations for horizontal diffusion, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion etc, adopted by GNOME have been presented in the paper. The simulation is carried out for month of September 2011. It is found that the spill possibly takes 10 hours to reach Gujarat coast and 15 hours to reach Maharashtra coast. With this available knowledge, appropriate mitigation measures may be adopted before spill reaches the shores.