Environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry pdf

Through this analysis, the epa sector strategies program seeks to provide new knowledge and insights regarding the environmental releases associated with oil and gas production. This report has been widely cited to make the case for opening the southeast to oil and gas development based on significant local, state, and regional benefits from drilling. Oil and gas companies are thus faced with the pressure to deliver both high returns to their. Environmental impacts of the oil and gas industries. Environmental impact assessment offshore oil and gas. Continental shelf ocs and in the broader oil and gas industry, at their core they all follow the same processidentify, analyze, evaluate, control, communicate, and monitor. Published in conjunction with api and iogp, it brings together the collective wealth of the technical expertise of the.

The oil and gas industry has been aware of these and other impacts for many years and has been developing methods for managing social impacts. Environmental impact of the petroleum industry wikipedia. The production of different products is dependent upon the composition of the crude oil raw material, the technology of the refinery principally a distillation process and market demand. Managing environmental risk in the oil and gas industry. It has had disastrous impacts on the environment in the region and has adversely. Petroleum has many uses, and the environmental impact of the petroleum industry is correspondingly extensive and expansive. Marginal wells are generally defined as those producing at the margin of profitability. Speight phd, dsc, in oil sand production processes, 20. Environmental impact assessment offshore oil and gas uk. The oil and gas industry currently faces the greatest environmental, health and safety challenges in its entire history. The broad environmental issues faced by the oil and gas exploration and production industry are manifested at both local and global levels. The issue of environmental sustainability is a major concern for governments and players from oil and gas industry worldwide. Common health, safety and environmental concerns in upstream oil and gas sector.

Management systems and practices, technologies and procedures that prevent and minimize impact are described. The oil and gas industry is a major consumer of water and energy resources and is therefore subject to increasingly stringent environmental standards. This constrains them to rethink extraction, production and distribution methods in order to obtain or maintain their licence to operate. Sustainability and offshore oil and gas exploration and production christian holmes. Increasing oil and gas exploration activities in the absence of sufficient baseline data in deepsea ecosystems has made environmental management challenging. In line with existing decc guidance, eias are already required to include a detailed assessment of the potential environmental impact of a hydrocarbon release, broadly based upon the opep requirements but including significant additional detail. The report also identifies some of the challenges associated with acquiring and analyzing relevant environmental impact data. Drilling during drilling, a drilling mud is continuously circulated between the well and the platform through a riser pipe. Other environmental impacts include intensification of the greenhouse effect, acid rain, poorer water quality, groundwater contamination, among others. Public concerns over potential environmental impacts have been heightened by the bp deepwater horizon incident offshore,8 and by hydraulic fracturing onshore and the rapid development of shale oil and gas fields in many parts of the united states. Indepth expository analyses using secondary data, data from the nnpc, extracts from the earth. Changes to town and country planning development management procedure england order 2010 for onshore oil and gas extraction impact assessment pdf document the uk government is committed to an effective and efficient planning system and has taken forward a series of measures to simplify and streamline. Pdf environmental impacts of the deepwater oil and gas. Industry commissioned many of these assets in the early.

A good working environment is a critical element that contributes towards safe and successful operations in the oil and gas industry influenced by high focus on cost and production regularity, heightened requirements for health and safety, and lower tolerability to. Environmental impacts of oil exploration and exploitation in the niger delta of nigeria. Erm is a leading global provider of integrated environmental, health, safety, risk and social consulting and sustainabilityrelated services. The following environmental issues should be considered as part of a comprehensive assessment and management program that addresses projectspecific risks and potential impacts. When conducting oil and gas operations, there is a risk of impacting the marine environment. Generally, environmental authorities set up guidelines to monitor the environmental conditions around oil and gas production platforms.

Unique to this text are the data on environmental aspects of russian offshore oil and gas developments presented by the leading expert on the problem. Wwf believes that the threat posed by oil developments and the oil and gas industry s track record in often failing to protect the environment adequately makes such developments too big a risk to be allowed near or in mpas. Sustainability and offshore oil and gas exploration and. The offshore oil and gas industry raises a wide range of environmental concerns the offshore oil and gas industry is a significant industry within the ospar area, particularly in regions ii greater north sea and iii celtic seas, but increasingly so in region i arctic waters. The environmental impacts of the oil and gas exploration activities are enormous and cannot be overlooked. Given the large volume and variety of distribution networks, careful management of environmental impacts is required. As global energy requirements escalate, so does the demand for improved environmental efforts. The oil and gas sector guidelines identify some general important factors to be considered when preparing an environmental impact assessment study. The environmental impacts of offshore oil drilling soapboxie. Environmental impacts of the deepwater oil and gas industry. The industrialization of the deep sea is expanding worldwide. To begin with, burning of natural gas, employed to dispose of associated gas is connected with crude oil production.

Their supply has grown quickly over the last 150 years to meet the demands of rapidly increasing human population, creativity, and. Apart from the addition of the russian experience in these topics, most of the information presented can be found in other recent wellknown publications. Strategic environmental and social assessment of oil and gas. Assessment of impacts of offshore oil and gas activities in. A guide to social impact assessment in the oil and gas. Environmental impacts of the offshore oil and gas industry. Potential environmental issues associated with offshore oil and gas development projects include the following.

We support the oil and gas industry across the entire spectrum of operations, delivering. Key topics importance of sustainability to the oil and gas industry importance of sustainability to environmental regulators sustainability challenges facing the exploration. Driving sustainable performance in the oil and gas sector. Connectivity has shown the potential to empower millions of people, while providing businesses with unparalleled opportunities for value creation and capture. Oil and gas industry 3 contents foreword digital transformation is emerging as a driver of sweeping change in the world around us. Conclusions and recommendations related chapters glossary bibliography biographical sketch summary this chapter aims to present the main environmental impacts of the oil and gas industry throughout the stages of exploration and discovery of new deposits, hydrocarbon production and oil refining.

The industry has grown significantly as a result of investments in infrastructure, technology and expertise. Crude oil and natural gas are primary energy and raw material sources that enable numerous aspects of modern daily life and the world economy. In 1997, the international association of oil and gas producers ogp published a report entitled principles for impact assessment. Environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry by. May 24, 2016 the environmental impacts of offshore drilling many aspects of the offshore drilling process can cause environmental impacts, from locating the oil, to drilling and pumping the oil to the surface, to the infrastructure required to drill and transport it. Environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry. Progress in technology development over the last five to ten years, both offshore and onshore, has been focused. Introduction this note provides highlights from a oneday csis workshop held april 26, 2017, with government, state regulators, industry, and policy experts exploring ongoing efforts to minimize and manage upstream environmental, health, safety, and societal risks associated with u. Environmental, health and safety guidelines for offshore oil. Pdf common health, safety and environmental concerns in. Assessment of impacts of offshore oil and gas activities. The environmental management issues raised in this report are magnified by estimates that approximately 85 percent of all oil wells and 70 percent of all gas wells nationally are marginal wells.

There is a supporting infrastructure of 14,000 km of pipelines connecting installations to beach terminals. The environmental impacts of offshore oil drilling. Specifically, multidisciplinary perspectives are given, addressing worldwide advances in studies, control, and prevention of the industry s impact on the marine environment and its living resources. Technical eia guidance manual for oil and gas exploration industry september 2009 ii 3. Ipieca the global oil and gas industry association for. The workshop was the second in a threepart workshop series, with the first pa. Environmental impact an overview sciencedirect topics. To further illustrate the relative safety of transportation of oil and gas by pipeline, green cited a statistic published by the national weather service that showed americans are 75% more likely to be killed by lightning than they are in an incident related to an oil or gas pipeline. Working environment in the oil and gas industry dnv gl. An assessment of the environmental implications of oil and. These impacts tends to affect the ecosystem in the coastal regions in ghana. Valuable areas under threat in many cases, oil and gas exploration and drilling is permitted in or near marine protected areas mpas.

Crude oil and gas undergoes primary separation by distillation to yield a range of different fractions including gases, naphtha, paraffin and gas oil. Patin has captured and synthesized a vast body of data and knowledge into a very practical text that should be standard reading for those involved in. White paper digital transformation initiative oil and gas. Ultimately, the oil and gas industry is faced with the challenge of aligning shortterm financial goals with the longterm environmental risks. There is a broad range of environmental concerns such as oil discharges from daily operations, the. This final rule revises requirements for well design, well control, casing, cementing, realtime monitoring rtm, and subsea containment. Environmental, health and safety guidelines for offshore. Jan 22, 20 esos guidance notes for the offshore oil and gas industry september 2019 pdf. Oil exploration and exploitation has been ongoing for several decades in the niger delta.

Chapters environmental impact of the offshore oil and. He mentions that while drilling for oil he and his company make sure to leave. Wwf believes that the threat posed by oil developments and the oil and gas industrys track record in often failing to protect the environment adequately makes such developments too big a risk to be allowed near or in mpas. The challenges of operating in a harsh offshore environment have been met with determined and innovative solutions and there is tremendous exploration and resource development potential over the next decade. Risk management for most offshore oil and gas operators begins with a multidisciplinary approach to. Many aspects of the offshore drilling process can cause environmental impacts, from locating the oil, to drilling and pumping the oil to the surface, to the infrastructure required to drill and transport it. The oil and gas industry may also contribute to biodiversity loss as well as to the destruction of ecosystems that, in some cases, may be unique. Impacts of onshore oil and gas development center for. As information has become available about the macondo incident, decc has been considering its impact on the uk environmental regime. Environmental impact of oil and gas exploration and production arise at various stages of oil and gas activities including, initial exploration, production and decommissioning at the final stage. Changes to town and country planning development management procedure england order 2010 for onshore oil and gas extraction impact assessment pdf document the uk government is committed to an effective and efficient planning system and has taken forward a. It is significant that, as a hydrocarbon reseviour is being depleted, the ratio between the water and oil fraction in the extracted product increases, and water becomes the. The ehs guidelines for offshore oil and gas development include information relevant to seismic exploration, exploratory and production drilling, development and production activities, offshore pipeline operations, offshore transportation, tanker loading and unloading.

The eia should be tailored to suit the potential impacts of the specific project. Using results from a longterm survey programme, it is. Chapters environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas. Expanding oil and gas exploration activities in the absence of sufficient baseline data in these ecosystems has made environmental management challenging. Environmental impact assessment of oil and gas industry in by. Environmental management in oil and gas exploration and. Environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry the most comprehensive resource on environmental issues surrounding the offshore oil and gas exploration and production. Environmental impacts of natural gas union of concerned. The report provides an overview of the environmental issues and the technical and management approaches to achieving high environmental performance in the activities necessary for oil and gas exploration and production. Jan 22, 20 the eu environmental issues register provides an overview of eu proposals for environmental legislation that have or may have impacts on the offshore oil gas industry. The negative impacts as a result of activities carried out by oil and gas companies have been a major toll not only to the livelihood and health of people, but more so to the environment, such as pollution. The ehs guidelines for offshore oil and gas development include information relevant to seismic exploration, exploratory and production drilling, development and production activities, offshore pipeline operations, offshore transportation, tanker loading and unloading, ancillary and support operations, and decommissioning. These revisions modify regulations pertaining to offshore oil and gas. Mud is used to maintain well pressure and wall stability.

The bureau of safety and environmental enforcement bsee is revising existing regulations for well control and blowout preventer systems. It has long been recognized that there is the need for responsible resource development, and the various levels of government have put the criteria in place to assure minimal environmental impact through 1 sciencebased precautionary limits that tell us when ecosystems are threatened and 2 improvement of the systems and. Large distribution networks may exist in the oil and gas industry including significant portfolios of retail petroleum stations. Department of the interior bureau of safety and environmental.