scholarly journals Environmental Impact of the Use of Surfactants and Oxygenates in the Petroleum Industry

Author(s):  
Tomasz Kalak
2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 685
Author(s):  
John Polglaze

Legends, myths and plain old misinformation abound of whale migrations interrupted by international shipping, dolphin populations displaced by dredging activities, and of seismic survey campaigns resulting in disoriented, beached whales. While risks exist, in truth the Australian petroleum industry continues to demonstrate that it can successfully coexist productively alongside populations of cetacean. These whales and dolphins are seemingly able to at least tolerate, if not actually be undisturbed by, underwater noise. Other risks to cetaceans from oil and gas activities, whether actual or perceived, encompass vessel strike, turbidity plumes from dredging, port developments, underwater blasting, spills, the laying and operation of pipelines, and similar. URS Australia’s John Polglaze is a specialist in the environmental impact evaluation of underwater noise, and has over 15 years experience in marine environmental management and impact assessment following nearly 20 years service in the Royal Australian Navy. John presents on the range of environmental impact assessment challenges for the oil and gas industry in Australian coastal and offshore regions, and effective, pragmatic solutions for demonstrating low risks to cetaceans and other sensitive marine fauna. These include the application and limitations of computer-based models to predict underwater noise and blast propagation, the development of a risk assessment framework that has proven effective with state and Commonwealth regulators, and case studies of real-life interactions between the petroleum industry and cetacean populations. In particular, he will discuss how misunderstanding and misapprehension of these complex issues unnecessarily complicates the challenges of environmental compliance. This topic is timely, given that Australia’s rapidly increasing whale populations, coupled with the continued expansion of offshore petroleum activities, will lead to more frequent interaction between and overlap of cetaceans and oil and gas activities.


2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 476
Author(s):  
David Warner

Australia could have shale gas resources several times bigger than the existing conventional gas resource base, which is estimated at about 5,300 BCM (190 TCF) by Geoscience Australia (GA). The Australian Government has no estimate of potential shale gas resources. The US Department of Energy (EIA) in 2011 estimated Australian shale gas resources to be 400 TCF. The quantity of this estimate is supported by an Australian study—which estimates resources of 600 TCF—conducted by Advanced Well Technologies (AWT) in conjunction with DSWPET. While there are significant technical differences between the shale gas plays in the US and Australia, it is too early to tell if the technical differences are barriers. There are also significant differences in the commercial landscape. The lack of capacity in Australia has lead to much higher costs for drilling and fracture stimulation than in the US. The size of the domestic gas market is much greater in the US and its existing infrastructure allows for production to come onstream quickly. In Australia this infrastructure is not present in most areas and the domestic market cannot support another large gas development. Perhaps the greatest challenge to this great opportunity is politics. There is a public, hence political,perception that all gas sources have the same gasland problems. These perceptions can be changed. First, the petroleum industry and governments need to understand the potential size of the gas resource and the possible strategic opportunity for Australia. Also these parties need to recognise that the shale gas resources are often located away from areas of high social and environmental impact. Once these factors are understood by these parties, factual information about the environmental impact of shale gas plays in comparison with coal seam methane and other alternative gas supplies can be factored into gas resource planning.


Author(s):  
Lidia Hrncevic

The petroleum industry holds long- and short-term environmental risks. Besides production fluids, all petroleum industry activities involve either use of fluids, which contain abundant substances, or waste generation, both associated with potential risk to the environment. The principal environmental risk associated with the petroleum industry is the risk of fluid spill/emission to the environment. Although in recent decades the risk analysis methodologies have matured, to date there is still no universally accepted methodology for environmental risk assessment in petroleum industry. In this chapter, the petroleum industry’s environmental incident history and statistics are presented. The environmental impact of the petroleum industry’s activities, its extent, and trends are analyzed. The overview of pollution sources with associated environmental risk is given along with the analysis of the causes and consequences of incidents in the petroleum industry.


Pollutants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 234-252
Author(s):  
Karina García-Villacís ◽  
Luis Ramos-Guerrero ◽  
José Luis Canga ◽  
Daniel Hidalgo-Lasso ◽  
Paul Vargas-Jentzsch

Past petroleum-extraction activities in Ecuador have contaminated its Amazon region. To assess the environmental impact attributed to remediation activities regarding the cleanup of these oil spills, two scenarios were studied according to Life Cycle Analysis methodology: (1) No-action, which means to leave the contamination in place without any further action and (2) Environmental remediation, where the environmental-load attributed to the remediation of the representative oil spill was studied. Results indicated that the no-action scenario presented a higher environmental impact for 12 out of the 16 environmental categories evaluated (climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity non-cancer effects, particulate matter, ionizing radiation human health, ionizing radiation ecosystem, photochemical ozone formation, acidification, terrestrial eutrophication, marine eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, mineral, fossil and renewable resource depletion). Moreover, the no-action scenario presented a global weighted score of contamination of 5.45 points, while the remediation scenario got a score of 3.3 points, which means that the remediation decreased by 39% of the global environmental impact due to the remediation activity applied, showing the positive influence of environmental remediation to mitigate the effects attributed to the presence of pollution sources associated to the petroleum industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon region.


Author(s):  
Lidia Hrncevic

The petroleum industry holds long- and short-term environmental risks. Besides production fluids, all petroleum industry activities involve either use of fluids, which contain abundant substances, or waste generation, both associated with potential risk to the environment. The principal environmental risk associated with the petroleum industry is the risk of fluid spill/emission to the environment. Although in recent decades the risk analysis methodologies have matured, to date there is still no universally accepted methodology for environmental risk assessment in petroleum industry. In this chapter, the petroleum industry's environmental incident history and statistics are presented. The environmental impact of the petroleum industry's activities, its extent, and trends are analyzed. The overview of pollution sources with associated environmental risk is given along with the analysis of the causes and consequences of incidents in the petroleum industry.


2017 ◽  
Vol 07 (06) ◽  
pp. 22-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashe Kalli Gazali ◽  
Abdulhamid Nur Alkali ◽  
Yakubu Mohammed ◽  
Yaba Djauro ◽  
Dahir D Muhammed ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 308-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed F. Attallah ◽  
Hanan M. Abdelbary ◽  
Entessar A. Elsofany ◽  
Yasser T. Mohamed ◽  
Mohamed M. Abo-Aly

Author(s):  
J. C. Wheatley ◽  
J. M. Cowley

Rare-earth phosphates are of particular interest because of their catalytic properties associated with the hydrolysis of many aromatic chlorides in the petroleum industry. Lanthanum phosphates (LaPO4) which have been doped with small amounts of copper have shown increased catalytic activity (1). However the physical and chemical characteristics of the samples leading to good catalytic activity are not known.Many catalysts are amorphous and thus do not easily lend themselves to methods of investigation which would include electron microscopy. However, the LaPO4, crystals are quite suitable samples for high resolution techniques.The samples used were obtained from William L. Kehl of Gulf Research and Development Company. The electron microscopy was carried out on a JEOL JEM-100B which had been modified for high resolution microscopy (2). Standard high resolution techniques were employed. Three different sample types were observed: 669A-1-5-7 (poor catalyst), H-L-2 (good catalyst) and 27-011 (good catalyst).


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