The laboratory was officially opened on June 10 with representatives of Norwegian and Russian authorities in attendance. The laboratory has been established at the Federal State Enterprise Murmansk Centre for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (MCSM).
The initiative to establish a laboratory in Murmansk to study the properties of oil at sea contributes to Norwegian authorities becoming better equipped to handle an oil spill from an accident involving a Russian oil tanker along the Norwegian coast. We are also playing a part in improving the oil spill contingency planning off North-west Russia.
Russian laboratory personnel from MCSM have received training at SINTEF Marine Environmental Technology and SINTEF has also carried out a similar transfer of expertise at the laboratory in Murmansk.
The project also involves some of SINTEF’s numerical models being utilised at Hydromet in Murmansk. The models provide comprehensive predictions of the behaviour of spilled oil at sea after an eventual oil spill.
Kristin Rist Sørheim is heading the project at SINTEF Marine Environmental Technology.
