Fugitive emissions from Norwegian oil and gas production

Fugitive hydrocarbon emissions from oil and gas production, always a safety concern, are currently a growing environmental and economic concern. Fugitive emissions from the offshore industry comprise mainly methane, which has an atmospheric warming contribution of approximately 14 times that of CO₂, and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which have an atmospheric warming contribution of around twice that of CO₂.

Current studies indicate that fugitive emissions are approximately equivalent to 0.02% of the total gas produced in 1992 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. A positive downward trend in fugitive emissions from oil and gas production has been identified and attributed to advances in technology and changes in design and operating philosophy.     

A risk assessment model for produced water discharge from offshore petroleum platforms-development and validation

Produced water discharge accounts for the greater portion of wastes arising from offshore oil and gas production operations. Development and expansion of Canada’s offshore oil and gas reserves has led to concerns over the potential long-term impacts of produced water discharges to the ocean. To examine this emerging environmental issue at a regional scale, an integrated risk assessment approach was developed in this study based on the princeton ocean model (POM), a random walk (RW) and Monte Carlo simulation. The use of water quality standards arrayed in a Monte Carlo design in the developed approach has served to reflect uncertainties and quantify environmental risks associated with produced water discharge. The model was validated against field data from a platform operating off Canada’s east coast, demonstrating its usefulness in supporting effective management of future produced water discharge.     

Impact of oil on the marine environment: Policy of the Paris commission on operational discharges from the offshore industry

Environmental impacts occur at all stages of oil and gas production. They are the result of prospecting activities, of the physical impact due to the installation of rigs, of the operational discharges when production starts and of accidental spills. The input of oil to the North Sea due to the offshore industry has been estimated at 29% of the total input of oil. The operational discharges consist of production water and drilling cuttings. An overview of statistics collected over the last 10 years shows that although the amount of oil discharged via production water is increasing as platforms are getting older, cuttings still account for 75% of the oil entering the sea as a result of normal operations. Spills represent a relatively small source of oil. The effects on the marine environment of discharges of production water and of discarded oily cuttings have been extensively studied, by national authorities as well as by the industry. Although it has not always been possible to reach consensus about the significance of the observed effects, a number of ‘agreed facts’ have led to establishment of regulations in the framework of the Paris Commission. The ‘decisions’ and ‘recommendations’ adopted by the Commission are regularly reviewed in the light of new developments.     

Fate of drilling waste discharges and ecological risk assessment in the Egyptian Red Sea: an aquivalence-based fuzzy analysis

Egypt is located in the Northeast of Africa where oil and gas (O&G) are produced offshore from the Gulf of Suez and the Southeast part of the Mediterranean. The O&G production in Egypt is distributed as follows: 70% from Gulf of Suez, 16% from Western desert, 8% from the Sinai Peninsula and 6% from Eastern desert. Past O&G activities, refining and transport have resulted in chronic pollution in Egyptian offshore and numerous environmental programs have been initiated to protect new development areas from the environmental impacts. The offshore drilling process uses drilling fluids (mud) and generates waste fluids and cuttings, which could be the largest discharges going into the receiving water bodies. There are several options to manage offshore drilling wastes: offshore discharge, offshore down-hole injection and onshore disposal. Water-based drilling fluids (WBF) are commonly employed for drilling in Egyptian offshore because of their expected environmental benign behavior. The main objective of this paper is to develop a methodology to determine the fate of heavy metals associated with WBF drilling waste in the marine environment and estimate the associated ecological risks. Proposed contaminant fate model is based on an aquivalence approach, which has been integrated with fuzzy-based analysis to study the uncertainties. This research concluded that the impacts of heavy metals associated with the drilling waste discharges in the receiving waters are minimal.     

Environmental monitoring in a gas production area on the northwestern Black-Sea shelf

The results of long-term seasonal oceanographic observations conducted by YugNIRO from 1955 to 1991 in standard cross-sections on the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea and data obtained by monitoring oil and chemical pollution of the marine environment from 1987 to 1993 in the area of gas deposit development are systematized and statistically treated. The oceanographic conditions of pollution field formation in this region are studied. The dynamics and distribution of total concentrations of oil products and microelements (Hg, Cu, Pb, Cd, and Cr) in water and bottom sediments are examined in the areas in Karkinitskii Bay where permanent offshore platforms are operated. The obtained results are compared with data on the background environmental pollution of the Black Sea and World Ocean. A hypothesis is offered to elucidate the possible causes and mechanisms through which offshore gas production affects the hydrochemical conditions on the shelf. The monitoring data are said to be a necessary information basis for the prediction of pollution dynamics in Karkinitskii Bay with the use of a box-type hydroecological model of petroleum hydrocarbon biotransformations in water, and approaches for the use of these data for this purpose are outlined.     

美国API RP2A-WSD规范对我国海洋石油平台抗震设防的启示

我国尚未制定海洋石油平台的抗震设计规范,目前世界海洋油气行业的抗震标准主要执行的是美国RP2A—WSD规范,该规范是基于是美国近海岸地震危险性区划结果而制定．本文介绍了RP2A-WSD规范及美国近海岸地震区划研究结果,论述了我国渤海海域地震活动性特性与地震动参数的研究内容,渤海海域是我国海洋石油开发的主要场所,且地震活动性较高,与美国南加利福尼亚近海岸具有可比性,然后对两者进行对比分析,并依据两者之间的对比结果,以及海洋石油平台的重要性和使用特征,对我国海洋石油平台的抗震设防标准和设防水准提出建议。     

Risk assessment of offshore oil and gas activities in the Netherlands

Offshore oil and gas activities may lead to a conflict between the protection of the marine environment and health and safety aspects. Priority given to the protection of the marine environment may have an impact on the health or safety of the people working offshore and/or the integrity of the offshore installation. Previous health and safety protection measures are now known to create large-scale effects on the environment, e.g. the application of polychlorinated biphenyls as a cooling medium in transformers and the application of the ozone-depleting halons for efficient fire protection. Risk assessment, taking all health and safety aspects into account, may be the primary mechanism to justify operational procedures agreed by the national authorities as well as by the Exploration and Production industry. Risk assessment of health and safety aspects uses several models which are applied when designing new offshore installations. Several models, which have been developed in the last couple of years, are now available for the assessment of the environmental risk. This paper considers the need for the application of risk assessment with respect to all aspects, health, safety and environment, in order to determine a balanced set of priorities and protection measures.     

Conventional Oil—The Forgotten Part of the Water-Energy Nexus

The impacts of unconventional oil and gas production via high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) on water resources, such as water use, groundwater and surface water contamination, and disposal of produced waters, have received a great deal of attention over the past decade. Conventional oil and gas production (e.g., enhanced oil recovery [EOR]), which has been occurring for more than a century in some areas of North America, shares the same environmental concerns, but has received comparatively little attention. Here, we compare the amount of produced water versus saltwater disposal (SWD) and injection for EOR in several prolific hydrocarbon producing regions in the United States and Canada. The total volume of saline and fresh to brackish water injected into depleted oil fields and nonproductive formations is greater than the total volume of produced waters in most regions. The addition of fresh to brackish “makeup” water for EOR may account for the net gain of subsurface water. The total amount of water injected and produced for conventional oil and gas production is greater than that associated with HVHF and unconventional oil and gas production by well over a factor of 10. Reservoir pressure increases from EOR and SWD wells are low compared to injection of fluids for HVHF, however, the longer duration of injections could allow for greater solute transport distances and potential for contamination. Attention should be refocused from the subsurface environmental impacts of HVHF to the oil and gas industry as a whole.     

A retrospective analysis of trace metals, C, N and diatom remnants in sediments from the Mississippi River delta shelf

The development of oil and gas recovery offshore of the Mississippi River delta began in shallow water in the 1950s, expanded into deeper waters, and peaked in the 1990s. This area of the outer continental shelf (OCS) is the historical and present location of >90% of all US OCS oil and gas production and reserves. The juxtaposition of its 4000 producing platforms, recovering $10 billion yr(-1) of oil, gas and produced water in the same area where about 28% of the US fisheries catch (by weight) is made and near 40% of the US coastal wetlands, makes this an area worth monitoring for regional pollutant loading. This loading may come from several sources, including sources related to OCS development, but also from the Mississippi River watershed. In this context, any contaminant loading on this shelf may be neither detectable nor significant against a background of climatic or biological variability. We examined the sedimentary record for indicators of industrial byproducts from OCS oil and gas development and of industrial products entering via the Mississippi River, primarily using vanadium (V) and barium (Ba) concentrations normalized for aluminum (Al). Barium is primarily used in drilling muds in the form of barite, whereas V is an important strengthening component of metal alloys, including steel. The fluctuations in the accumulation of Ba, but not V, were coincidental with the presumed use of barite. The fluctuations in V concentration in the sediments were coincidental with the national consumption of V. Copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) concentrations in sediments fluctuate coincidentally with V, not Ba, thus indicating that the dominant source of these trace metals in offshore sediments were derived from riverine sources, and were not primarily from in situ industrial processes releasing them on the shelf. This is not to suggest that local site-specific contamination is not a significant management or health concern. The low oxygen (hypoxia; < or = 2 mg l(-1)) zone that consistently covers much of this continental shelf's bottom layer in summer is attributed to nitrate loading from the Mississippi River. Increased nitrogen loading from river to shelf stimulates diatom production whose loading to the bottom layer and subsequent metabolism results in oxygen being depleted faster than it is replaced. In the last two decades there has been an increased accumulation of organic matter in sediments near the mouth of the Mississippi River. This coupling between river water, surface water and bottom water has recently expanded westward of the Atchafalaya River delta towards the Texas coast. The accumulation of biogenic silica (BSi) and carbon in dated sediments is coincidental with variations in riverine nitrate flux, but not with either V or Ba accumulation rates. These analyses indicate that both OCS development and riverine sources exert strong influences on the sediment constituents offshore, and that these influences may be independent of one another.     

Overview of US Minerals Management Service Activities in Deepwater Research

The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) is responsible for safe and environmentally sound management of offshore oil and gas resources. In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in both activities and plans for deepwater development of these resources in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). As the industry meets the enormous technical challenges involved, there is a concomitant effort to assure environmental protection of deep-ocean and coastal resources. This paper will outline the research planning and program currently underway to assess impacts, identify potential problems, and discover more about unknown resources of the deep ocean.     

Water column monitoring near oil installations in the North Sea 2001-2004

Fisheries have been vital to coastal communities around the North Sea for centuries, but this semi-enclosed sea also receives large amounts of waste. It is therefore important to monitor and control inputs of contaminants into the North Sea. Inputs of effluents from offshore oil and gas production platforms (produced water) in the Norwegian sector have been monitored through an integrated chemical and biological effects programme since 2001. The programme has used caged Atlantic cod and blue mussels. PAH tissue residues in blue mussels and PAH bile metabolites in cod have confirmed exposure to effluents, but there was variation between years. Results for a range of biological effects methods reflected exposure gradients and indicated that exposure levels were low and caused minor environmental impact at the deployment locations. There is a need to develop methods that are sufficiently sensitive to components in produced water at levels found in marine ecosystems.     

Deep Injection of Waste Water in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin

Injection of wastes into the deep subsurface has become a contentious issue, particularly in emerging regions of oil and gas production. Experience in other regions suggests that injection is an effective waste management practice and that widespread environmental damage is unlikely. Over the past several decades, 23 km³ of water has been injected into the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB). The oil and gas industry has injected most of this water but large amounts of injection are associated with mining activities. The amount of water injected into this basin during the past century is 2 to 3 orders magnitude greater than natural recharge to deep formations in the WCSB. Despite this large‐scale disturbance to the hydrogeological system, there have been few documented cases of environmental problems related to injection wells. Deep injection of waste appears to be a low risk activity based on this experience but monitoring efforts are insufficient to make definitive statements. Serious uncharacterized legacy issues could be present. Initiating more comprehensive monitoring and research programs on the effects of injection in the WCSB could provide insight into the risks associated with injection in less developed sedimentary basins.     

Potential Impact of Production Chemicals on the Toxicity of Produced Water Discharges from North Sea Oil Platforms

Production chemicals are used on offshore oil production platforms to prevent corrosion and scale formation, and to assist oil–water separation. A proportion of these chemicals may enter the marine environment via the produced water discharge. This study investigated the potential impact of 11 oilfield production chemicals on the toxicity of the produced water discharge. The Microtox® system was used for toxicity assessment of the chemicals, both directly in aqueous preparations and following their partitioning between oil (crude and low toxicity mineral base oil) and North Sea brine. For the majority of the chemicals tested, the toxicity of the aqueous phase to the test organism following partitioning against crude oil, was not significantly altered by the presence of process chemicals when used in their normal field dosage concentrations. However, there was evidence that certain chemicals could increase the partitioning of oil components into the aqueous phase by an order of magnitude, when applied at high dosage concentrations.     

Environmental effects of the use of oil-based drilling muds in the North Sea

The environmental effects of oil-based drilling mud cuttings have been evaluated using all the data available from monitoring around North Sea platforms. Beneath the platforms making extensive use of oil-based drilling muds the natural sediment is buried by cuttings and the hydrocarbon concentration 250 m from the platforms may be 1000 times background, but the concentration gradient is very steep and background levels are usually reached 2000–3000 m from the platform.The extent of the biological effects appear to be greater from the use of oil-based muds than from water-based muds. Beyond the area of physical smothering the effects of oil-based mud cuttings may be due to organic enrichment or to the toxicity of the aromatic fraction of the oil. Despite the large scale of inputs, in all the fields studied the major deleterious biological effects occurred within 500 m of the platform. Surrounding the area of major impact was a transition zone in which subtle biological effects could be detected as community parameters returned to normal, generally within 400–1000 m.The shape and extent of this zone varied and was largely determined by the current regime and scale of the drilling operation. Elevated hydrocarbon concentrations were detected beyond the areas of biological effects.     

Drill cutting accumulations in the Northern and Central North Sea: a review of environmental interactions and chemical fate

The exploration and production of North Sea oil and gas reserves has resulted in the accumulation of large quantities of drill cuttings on the seabed surrounding drill sites. This complex mixture of man-made and natural substances contains higher concentrations of certain metals (Ba, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) and hydrocarbons than are observed in background sediments. With decommissioning of older platforms underway, an evaluation of the environmental interactions and chemical fate of the drill cuttings accumulations is required.This review concentrates on contaminants within drill cutting accumulations in the Northern and Central North Sea (56 degrees N-62 degrees N). Present literature reviewed reveals that hydrocarbons within the cuttings piles remain relatively unchanged with time. A considerable proportion of the associated contaminants are likely to remain within the cuttings pile unless they are disturbed which will then increase exchanges of porewater and solids back to the seabed surface resulting in pathways of exposure for organisms.     

Produced water extracts from North Sea oil production platforms result in cellular oxidative stress in a rainbow trout in vitro bioassay

Produced water (PW) discharged from offshore oil industry contains chemicals known to contribute to different mechanisms of toxicity. The present study aimed to investigate oxidative stress and cytotoxicity in rainbow trout primary hepatocytes exposed to the water soluble and particulate organic fraction of PW from 10 different North Sea oil production platforms. The PW fractions caused a concentration-dependent increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) after 1 h exposure, as well as changes in levels of total glutathione (tGSH) and cytotoxicity after 96 h. Interestingly, the water soluble organic compounds of PW were major contributors to oxidative stress and cytotoxicity, and effects was not correlated to the content of total oil in PW. Bioassay effects were only observed at high PW concentrations (3-fold concentrated), indicating that bioaccumulation needs to occur to cause similar short term toxic effects in wild fish.     

Polychaete/amphipod ratio as an indicator of environmental impact related to offshore oil and gas production along the Norwegian continental shelf

Benthic faunal data is regularly collected worldwide to assess the ecological quality of marine environments. Recently, there has been renewed interest in developing biological indices able to identify environmental status and potential anthropogenic impacts. In this paper we evaluate the performance of a general polychaete/amphipod ratio along the Norwegian continental shelf as an environmental indicator for offshore oil and gas impacts. Two main trends are apparent: first, a contamination gradient is discernible from where production takes place compared to stations 10,000 m away. Second, the quality of the marine environment has improved over time. These results are consistent with monitoring reports employing a combination of uni- and multi-variate statistics. Thus, we consider this ratio as a relatively simple, useful and potentially cost-effective complement to other more demanding assessment techniques. Because of its strong theoretical basis, it may also be useful for detecting ecological change as a result of other activities.     

Environmental effects of North Sea oil operations

To appreciate the impact of large-scale industrial operations on the marine environment requires a range of scientific studies which ideally should include physical, chemical and biological surveys of the various environmental compartments likely to be contaminated, linked with experiments designed to detect and quantify effects. More finely focused studies can then provide an evaluation of the impact. In relation to North Sea oil activities, this type of approach suggests that at present significant offshore contamination is found only in the sediments close to platforms using oil-based drilling muds.     

Spatial and spectral characteristics of oscillations of offshore oil and gas production platforms caused by earthquakes and other impacts

The results of analysis of oscillations of an offshore oil and gas production platform, caused by seismic and other impacts (ice-field motion, storm wave impact, ship impact on platform supports, mechanism operations, etc.) are given. The analysis has been based on mathematical modeling of various impacts. Specific features of the inducement of platform mechanical oscillations as a function of the type of impact have been revealed, and the qualitative distinctions of platform oscillations under different impacts are described, allowing one to determine accelerometer-mounting sites for revealing seismic events by changes in acceleration on the platform.     

The occurrence of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa (Scleractinia) on oil and gas platforms in the North Sea: colony growth, recruitment and environmental controls on distribution

This study reports a newly established sub-population of Lophelia pertusa, the dominant reef-framework forming coral species in the north-east Atlantic, on oil and gas platforms in the northern North Sea. L. pertusa was positively identified on 13 of 14 platforms examined using existing oil and gas industry visual inspections. Two platforms were inspected in more detail to examine depth and colony size distributions. We recorded 947 colonies occurring between 59 and 132 m depth that coincides with cold Atlantic water at depths below the summer thermocline in the northern North Sea. We suggest that these colonies provide evidence for a planktonic larval stage of L. pertusa with recruits initially originating from populations in the north-east Atlantic and now self recruiting to the platforms. Size class distribution showed a continuous range of size classes, but with few outlying large colonies. The break between the largest colonies and the rest of the population is considered as the point when colonies began self recruiting to the platforms, resulting in greater colonization success. We present the first documented in situ colony growth rate estimate (26 +/- 5 mm yr(-1)) for L. pertusa based on 15 colonies from the Tern Alpha platform with evidence for yearly recruitment events starting the year the platform was installed. Evidence of contamination from drill muds and cuttings was observed on the Heather platform but appeared limited to regions close to drilling discharge points, where colonies experience partial as well as whole colony mortality.