Underwater oil and gas leak containment systems and methods

A method comprising:

• identifying an underwater leak issuing a leak flow;
• obtaining a vortex device comprising
• a vortex chamber,
• a high pressure inlet tangentially engaging the vortex chamber,
• a low pressure inlet axially engaging the vortex chamber, and
• a low pressure outlet axially engaging the vortex chamber opposite the low pressure inlet;
• generating a vortex within the vortex chamber;
• encircling, by a shroud, the leak flow;
• conducting, by the shroud, the leak flow into at least one of the high pressure inlet and the low pressure inlet;
• ingesting, by the vortex chamber, at least a first portion of the leak flow through the low pressure inlet;
• and
• conducting, by a conduit, the at least a first portion of the leak flow from the low pressure outlet to a surface location.

A method comprising:

• identifying an underwater leak issuing a leak flow;
• obtaining a plurality of vortex devices connected together to form a two-dimensional array of vortex devices, each vortex device of the plurality of vortex devices comprising
• a vortex chamber,
• a high pressure inlet tangentially engaging the vortex chamber,
• a low pressure inlet axially engaging the vortex chamber, and
• a low pressure outlet axially engaging the vortex chamber opposite the low pressure inlet;
• generating a vortex within each vortex chamber corresponding to the plurality of vortex devices;
• ingesting, by each vortex chamber corresponding to the plurality of vortex devices, at least a portion of the leak flow through a low pressure inlet corresponding thereto;
• and
• conducting, by one or more conduits, the at least a portion of the leak flow ingested by each vortex chamber from the low pressure outlet corresponding thereto to a surface location.