Environmental Management for Thai Offshore Base Construction Project

Abstract

Abstract PTTEP's Thai Offshore Base (TOB) has been under construction since 2002. Several potential environmental impacts include fish farming, ground vibration, potential shoreline erosions and excessive noises were encountered. To this, PTTEP took new initiatives in implementing series of environmental management into the project in order to solve any profound impacts to environment claimed to have occurred and to the nearby communities. PTTEP had set up a so-called Environmental Impact Monitoring Committee chaired by Sonkhla Provincial Deputy Governor which was comprised of representatives from provincial governments and local agencies, representatives from the local residents in community and the project owner to continuously observe changes and any environmental impacts occurred. The Environmental Impact Monitoring Committee meetings were held on regular basis to solve any problems resulted from the project. Moreover, series of other environmental management initiatives were also implemented throughout the construction period such as the use of silt curtains. PTTEP installed the silt curtains around the dredging sites to prevent outflow of silts. It was the first large and systematic silt curtains ever installed in Thailand for dredging sites. Series of other environmental management works were implemented such as routine and regular environmental quality monitoring of seawater, air, noise, etc, and conducting a PostEnvironmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for any changes in designs which occurred. PTTEP's environmental management initiatives on TOB project has proved to be efficiently implemented without any major protests, unlike other projects during that time. Experiences gained from this project have been successfully applied to other project such as the major gas pipeline in the southern Thailand.