Evaluation of the Leviathan offshore platform environmental studies in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Authors: Zodiatis George , Liubartseva Svitlana , Loizides Loizos , Pellegatta Marco , Coppini Giovanni , Lardner Robin , Kallos George , Kalogeri Christina , Bonarelli Roberto , Sepp Neves Antonio Augusto , Nikolaides Panicos , Brillant Avigdor 
Published: March 2020

&lt;p&gt;One of the largest last decade discoveries of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea is the Leviathan field, which constitutes a large-scale energy program of the State of Israel. Gas and condensate from the Leviathan well are transferred via pipeline to an offshore platform located ~10 km from the Israeli shoreline, and from there via a pipeline to the coastal Leviathan energy installation. The local communities are concerned from the pollution implications that might occur in case of spillage and/or any malfunction in regular operation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The present work includes review of previous environmental studies regarding the Leviathan energy project 2007-2011, new extended simulations 2015-2018 for condensate, diesel and grey water leaks and resultant evaporation simulations caused by possible condensate spillage from the offshore platform and the pipe rupture.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the framework of the current study concerning the Leviathan offshore platform, a robust statistics &amp;#160;is obtained by &lt;strong&gt;5844 &lt;/strong&gt;spill simulation runs for condensate and diesel against&lt;strong&gt;12&lt;/strong&gt; runs as mentioned in the previous studies, while for the pipe rupture a robust statistics was made with &lt;strong&gt;104 &lt;/strong&gt;runs for condensate and diesel compared to&lt;strong&gt;12 &lt;/strong&gt;runs as performed previously.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The previous spillage scenarios from the offshore platform had underestimated by almost order of magnitude the content per design itself (1000bbls vs. ~6000bbls) and documentation of permits. Similarly, the pipe rupture spillage scenarios underestimated by almost half order of magnitude (1200bbls vs. ~3000bbls). Therefore, the current simulations predicted larger spillage quantities, compared to the aforementioned previous simulations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The main conclusions driven from the 10km counter simulations for the offshore platform spillage show the following: First oil arrival at the Israeli coast from the offshore platform is predicted to be within 8 hours after start of spillage event in winter, and within 11 hours in summer.The first impacted area is predicted to be the coastline between Zichron-Ya'akov/Dor and Atlit. In winter on average, it is predicted that 17% of the spillage is beached, while in summer, twice as higher, i.e. up to 35%. Deposition of spilled condensate in the Hadera desalination plant is estimated to be the highest among the 5 desalination plants examined.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the main conclusions driven from the 1km pipe rupture spillage counter show that the first impact on the Israel is predicted to be within 5-6 hours after start of spillage in winter, and within 3-4 hours in summer, with the worst case scenario occurring within half an hour after start of the spillage. The coastline of Zichron-Ya'akov is found to be an epicenter of the highest condensate deposition up to 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 washed up the shore nearby, without any significant seasonal or monthly variability. The condensate spillage from the pipe rupture located 1 km from the shoreline will affect mostly the Atlit, Ma'agan-Michael and Caesarea National parks&amp;#8217; and the Hadera desalination plant coastlines.&lt;/p&gt;