Oil spill accidents occurred frequently that cause great impact on the environmental and ecological systems as well as the economy. For this reason source tracking and identification related technologies are constantly being developed and applied. Oil contained biomarker compounds like steranes and terpanes which are source specific, bio-stability, are more resistant to biodegradation and other physical and chemical weathering effects. Therefore biomarkers analytical technology is widely used in oil spill identification. It is the most effective method for identification of the suspected oil source by comparison of the diagnostic ratios of biomarker and related chemical fingerprinting. This report, in accordance with the proposed plan, has continued to collecting oil spill identification related technologies documents and papers particularly focusing on the weathering process. Regarding the development of the oil spill identification method and technology, the accuracy and repeatability of the GC/MS instrument have been performed and validated. Next, 26 different oil samples from different regions and countries are analyzed to establish the chemical fingerprint distribution and various diagnostic ratios of the biomarkers. As for the investigation of the weathering effects, particularly for the evaporation and dissolution processes, testing of three oil samples were performed as well. Finally the drafted standard procedure for biomarker measuring technologies of offshore oil spill is revised and real applications including the recent Parma’s ship oil spill accident are demonstrated.

Oil spill, Biomarker, Measuring Technologies, GC/MS, Weathering, Diagnostic ratio