Our People
Board
David Prior, Director and Founder of Northern Spill Technology
Management
David Prior, President and CEO
Technical Advisors
Tony Thomson, Engineering and Design
Support Organisations
Weldon McInnis Secretary/Legal Counsel
Kerr & Nadeau Patents
Fairway Marine insurance and builder's risk
September 2012 bird's eye view photo of our 12-meter skimmer during successful tests at the U.S. Navy's Ohmsett facility in New Jersey prior to delivery to the Canadian Coast Guard.
Brief R&D History
- 2005: Bench-top testing begins for a new oil spill mitigation technology at the Department of Oil and Gas, Dalhousie University, with Dr. Farid Taheri.
- 2006: Altinex ASA (Norway) invests $100K in larger-scale tank tests on a 2.4 m test model successfully recovering bunker C fuel oil;
- • proposed 12 m oil skimmer vessel designed by E.Y.E. Marine, and preliminary development of a 14.9 m high-speed skimmer vessel.
- • Canadian Coast Guard oversees test (with floating oranges) of 6.25 m EST/NST vessel in Halifax harbour;
- 2009: Retrofitted 6.25 m vessel test (with floating oranges) with excellent results in 1 m wave conditions and high winds, mouth of Halifax harbour;
- 2010: In response to the Deepwater Horizon Blowout, EST/NST builds a second 6 m test vessel in Mobile, Alabama and tests it in a 22 m tank using petroleum oil. Successful sea trials on ocean lead BP to admit EST/NST into its High Interest Technology Team program (HITT).
- 2011: EST/NST patent-pending technology short-listed for Sustainable Shipping Awards (Ocean Environmental Protection Award category), London, England;
- • EST/NST selected under the first round of the PWGSC's Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program.
- 2012: EST/NST patents granted in China, USA, Canada;
- • Third EST/NST 6 m skimmer vessel built in China and successfully demonstrated to Chinese Coast Guard at Qingdao harbour with floating bunker C heavy fuel oil;
- • EST/NST 12 m vessel built in Canada and tested at the US Navy's Ohmsett test tank with highly successful results; further successful testing carried out by Canadian Coast Guard;
- • Dr. Wei Qiu (Faculty of Engineering, Memorial University) begins numerical modelling studies of EST/NST tower design;
- Nov. 2015: EST/NST invited by Natural Resources Canada to submit a full proposal to enhance EST/NST technology for the recovery of diluted bitumen.
In 2015: EST/NST technology was asked to join a European consortium assembled to participate in the EU-funded H2020-BG-2015-2, offering Euro 36,000,000 to produce new oil spill technology for the ocean. Although EU funding for this initiative was suspended before our application could be submitted, we anticipate ongoing collaborations with this Consortium because EST/NST was brought on as a key contributor of technology. Consortium partners included the Center for International Climate and Research (Norway), Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (Germany), Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France), Hamburg Ship Model Basin GmbH (Germany), Imperial College London (UK), Center for Naval Analyses (USA) and 15 other institutions. The project lead was Professor Peter Wadhams of the University of Cambridge, UK. - Feb. 2019: State of California-Chevron invite EST/NST to present at the Oil Spill Response Technology Workshop.
- Nov. 2019: EST/NST presents at the Marine Institute at MUN. Details can be seen here.