The ADIOS Oil Database is designed to support oil spill response and oil spill preparedness operations through a compilation of publicly available oil assays (combinations of physical and chemical data that uniquely describe or characterize a crude oil). 

The Oil Database includes: physical and chemical properties, data on these properties for oils that have undergone simulated weathering, and in some cases, evaluation of environmental behavior such as emulsification and amenability to the use of chemical dispersants. Each record contains data on a single crude oil or petroleum product sample.

The goal of the Database is to provide the oil spill response community with the data and information about a wide variety of petroleum products needed to respond to spills, and plan for such responses. These data can be used as is, or as input to oil spill models, such as the GNOME suite. 

The database contains many thousands of records. Many of them are quite complete, and others have minimal information. It is up to the user to assess whether a record is adequate for their use case.

The data are available via a Web-based interface, in which users can search for oils based on product type, API gravity, and common naming schemes for petroleum products. Each record can be examined for the properties of the oils, presented in a structured format. The data itself can be downloaded from the web interface in JSON format. The JSON files contain all the data associated with each record, accompanied by appropriate units and laboratory methods used, where appropriate. These data files can be used by oil spill models, such as NOAA’s GNOME model, or processed by other software tools.

The data are presented as-is, and we are currently working to verify each record to ensure its fidelity to its original source. The data in this database are aggregated from numerous sources, including: the Emergencies Science and Technology Section (ESTS) of Environment and Climate Change Canada; the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies (NOFO); publicly-available assays from ExxonMobil and other petroleum companies; individual records directly collected by NOAA, and all the data previously found in the ADIOS2 database.

In addition to the ADIOS Oil Database site, the working copy of the data is available in JSON format on gitHub.

ERD is constantly working to correct errors and add to the data. If you find an error or other issue in the Database, or have additional data you’d like to contribute, please contact us. 

The software used to manage the data and support the Web user interface is Open Source and available on ERD’s gitHub page. The software is written in Python and can be used to manage the data, add new records, validate records, etc. For questions about the Python package, please use gitHub Issues to contact the development team.

Initial funding for this project was provided by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Additional funding was provided by Canada's Multi-Partner Research Initiative. We also wish to acknowledge the major contributors of data to the database: Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)’s Emergencies Science and Technology Section (ESTS), ExxonMobil, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, and Louisiana State University.

Questions: Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions about the ADIOS Oil Database.