Patent ID: 8805618

Claim:
A method of determining whether a source of seawater contamination is from an offshore hydrocarbon well facility or whether the source of the contamination is external to the offshore hydrocarbon well facility, the facility comprising: a plurality of seabed wellheads connected by hydrocarbon conduits to a seabed pipeline head from which a hydrocarbon pipeline leads to a remote hydrocarbon receiving facility, each said wellhead being provided with a protective cover to which is removably attached a sensor unit, each said sensor unit comprising a biological sensor and a data transmitter coupled by a data transmission line to said remote facility, said well facility further comprising a seawater velocity sensor, a seawater conductivity sensor and a temperature sensor also coupled by a data transmission line to said remote facility, wherein the method comprises: analyzing data from said data transmission line to determine indicia of seawater contamination at said well facility and of the seawater flow at said well facility; and providing a signal indicative of seawater contamination above a preselected limit, wherein the source of the seawater contamination is determined to be from the offshore hydrocarbon well facility or external to the offshore hydrocarbon well facility based on the seawater flow.