Environmental Protection in the Arabian Gulf

Environmental Protection in the Arabian Gulf. Abstract The Arabian Gulf had been subjected to tremendous development activities in the past 40 years, this, in addition to two fierce wars which must have had some impact on the marine environment. This paper will investigate and summarise through review of numerous scientific studies, the recommended applied and or implemented strategies for conservation and how these may have an impact on the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry. The conclusions and recommendations made (in both, global terms and for oil and gas industry) primarily represent the author's own views and in some parts acknowledged views of a number of professionals who were asked to contribute their vision on the future of protection of the Gulf marine environment. Whilst this paper is directed towards the Marine Environment, similar conclusions can be drawn for land and atmospheric issues. Development and impact. The Gulf had witnessed a tremendous increase in anthropogenic intervention in its ecological setting in the last forty years. On the coastal areas, development of major cities, dredging, land reclamation, ports and harbors, other beach developments, refineries and other petrochemicals, water desalination plants, power stations, sewage systems, agriculture, factories etc. had sprung up with very little assessment of its environmental impact. The picture is not different in the offshore areas, increased drilling for oil and as, construction of platforms, thousands of kilometres of under water pipelines, thousands of marine transport and service vessels and work barges (not mentioning military transport and activities), expanded fishing industry, merchant shipping and finally, an enormous number of oil and gas tankers grazing the Gulf waters by the hour. In one study, a figure of one ship every six minutes enters the strait of Hormuz was mentioned, and according to Linden et al., (1990), 20,000 to 35, 000 individual tankers pass through Hormuz every year. The above development poses a number of questions with regard to environmental impact, these areHow much of the original ecology of Gulf has been changed in the past 40 years, (for better or for worse). Because no studies exist for the pre-development period, the comparison cannot be made. The knowledge we possess now was mostly developed during 1970's and 1980's, with the bulk of it accumulated after 1990 in response to the Gulf war environmental crisis. Most, if not all of this knowledge is summarised in more than forty scientific studies published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 27, 1993.Are the Gulf States exhausting or damaging one of the most valuable renewable resource by not balancing the economic and social needs of the people and the limits of what the environment can tolerate?How much of the Gulf environmental impact was contributed by the offshore oil and gas industry. In the following sections, we will attempt to answer the above questions through an overview survey of the literature available, to discuss the relevant conservation and regulatory initiatives and propose future strategies. The Environmental Impact As of Today Natural Pressures. The Gulf is already under natural environmental stresses due to its arid, shallow nature and its relative youth, see table 1 which gives a summary of the Gulf physical and biological nature as tabulated from Shepard (1993) and Price et al., (1993). Against this background, the impact of development activities and from man made disasters and misuse can be better assessed and understood. P. 131

Safety culture and worker fatigue management in the offshore oil and gas industry: An interview study

Recently a significant number of accidents in offshore oil and gas industry have made us more concerned about enhancing the operational safety in offshore drilling and production worldwide. There is an urgent need of looking into the above problems by the operators, regulators and the stakeholders of the oil and gas industry. Compiling and analyzing the key factors, facilitating the sharing of the learning experiences, and interacting with the industry and the government can identify the areas where industry can continuously improve the operational safety and environment management. Since it is difficult for any regulator to inspect the quality of the safety management system in oil and gas industry, the safety culture has to be inculcated within the industry to ensure safe operations under protected environment in offshore installations. In most cases, human factors in the management of emergency response are more important to reduce the risk of accidents. Lack of positive safety culture by the individuals, poor qualities of inspecting, reporting and auditing, and sharing of actual data complicate the above issue. In this paper, a critical assessment has been carried out on the operational safety and environmental issues and their management systems in offshore oil industry in India and abroad. Based on a few case studies, possible recommendations have been made which may be helpful for the oil and gas industry. Keywords: Offshore oil and gas industry, operational safety and environmental issues, emergency response

Medical evacuation in the offshore oil and gas industry is costly and risky. Previous studies have found that the main cause of medical evacuation due to illness is increasing. In Thailand, there have been no studies on the causes and costs of medical evacuation in the offshore oil and gas industry. This study aims to study on the causes and costs of medical evacuation among offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Thailand. A retrospective review of data of medical evacuation among the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Thailand from 2016 to 2019 for a period of 36 months. During the research period, a total of 416 cases were evacuated. The majority of the causes of Medevac (84.13%) were illness. We found that 60.1% of all Medevacs were unpreventable or difficult to prevent, and only 39.9% were preventable. The cost of Medevac ranged from 10,000 to 880,000 THB per case. The cost of Medevac occurring from preventable causes was 17,160,000 THB for this period of 36 months. Reducing the cost of Medevac can be done by: 1) vaccination to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases, 2) screening to prevent people at risk of getting complications from pre-existing diseases to work offshore, and 3) increasing treatment capability of offshore facilities. Offshore oil and gas industry may consider cost-benefit of these approaches compared to status quo.

A survey of offshore first line supervisors on the UKCS installations identified the significance of their role in terms of performance, job satisfaction and safety. Many respondents felt that the offshore environment changed supervisory style and work discipline, and some felt that the general work regime was affected. More than half of the respondents felt that the combination of working, socialising and living with their shift could influence supervisory decisions.

The oil industry is seen as being similar to other mining activities in having a cycle of expansion and subsequent contraction. Previous literature suggests this cycle leads to boomtown communities. Furthermore, the oil and gas industry is often seen as a having primarily negative social effects on the communities it invades. The present research takes an in-depth look at the small South Louisiana community of St. Mary Parish; an area with eco-nomic roots in such extraction enterprises as lumber, fishing and later, oil. Positive attributes of the presence of the oil and gas industry are identified, namely-sustainability and increased life chances of local residents. Due to methodological limitations previous research might have been unable to holistically view the off-shore oil in-dustries impacts on communities. This paper concludes that the paradigmatic usage of the NEPA boomtown model is inapt for the study of the Gulf off-shore oil industry.

Measuring Safety and Environmental Performance in the U.S. Offshore Oil and Gas Industry R.L. Beittel; R.L. Beittel U.S. Department of the Interior Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar S.R. Atkins S.R. Atkins U.S. Department of the Interior Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the SPE International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Stavanger, Norway, June 2000. Paper Number: SPE-60981-MS https://doi.org/10.2118/60981-MS Published: June 26 2000 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Beittel, R.L., and S.R. Atkins. "Measuring Safety and Environmental Performance in the U.S. Offshore Oil and Gas Industry." Paper presented at the SPE International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Stavanger, Norway, June 2000. doi: https://doi.org/10.2118/60981-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll ProceedingsSociety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainability Search Advanced Search AbstractThe U.S. Minerals Mangement Service (MMS), U.S. Coast Guard, and oil and gas interests that operate in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) cooperated to create four types of quantitative, normalized, historical indicators of the safety and environmental performance of offshore operations. The indicators cover employee injuries, oil spills, other incidents that could cause injuries or pollution, and noncompliances with safety and environmental regulations. The performance indicators are reported as OCS industry incident rates or participating company incident rates. Twenty specific incident rates are generated annually using arithmetic formulas that operate on performance data developed by MMS and the participating OCS operating companies. This paper explains the process used to develop the OCS performance measures, describes the OCS performance data, and presents the performance measures formulas. In addition, the industry and participating companies' incident rates for 1996, 1997, and 1998 are reported and discussed.AcknowledgementThis paper summarizes the collaborative work of numerous people who are affiliated with the U.S. Federal Government or the U.S. offshore oil and gas industry. The effort to create the OCS Performance Measures Program would not have succeeded without their participation. Some of these people have provided support to the Program for more than 4 years. In particular, the authors want to recognize the following individuals for their long-term dedication to the tasks of developing and maintaining the OCS performance measures, periodic gathering of performance data, and preparing Program reports: Steve Brooks, Exxon-Mobil; Charlie Duhon, Kerr-McGee Corporation; David Dykes, Minerals Management Service; Gary Harrington, Newfield Exploration Company; Virgil Harris, Offshore Operators Committee; Lloyd Hetrick, Cockrell Oil Corporation; Don Howard, Minerals Management Service; Tim Sampson, American Petroleum Institute; John Rullman, Exxon-Mobil; Alan Spackman, International Association of Drilling Contractors; Peter Velez, Shell Offshore Inc.; Craig Ward, Independent Petroleum Association of America; and Mark Witten, Chevron USA Inc.Purpose of the OCS Performance Measures ProgramThe OCS Performance Measures Program (hereafter referred to as Program) is an outgrowth of the OCS Safety and Environmental Management Program (SEMP). The SEMP is a tool for OCS operators and contractors that integrates 10 fundamental activities associated with discovering, developing, and producing offshore oil and gas. Oil and gas companies that operate in the OCS adopt SEMP voluntarily. Contractors with significant OCS operations are also encouraged to develop a SEMP. The American Petroleum Institute (API) maintains formal guidance for developing a SEMP1 and also has monitored the status of voluntary SEMP implementation.2 The principal reason for creating OCS performance measures was to help a company or contractor determine how SEMP has affected its operating safety and environmental performance.In addition to assessing the effects of SEMP on a company-specific basis, the OCS performance measures can be used to monitor operating performance on an OCS-wide scale. This is accomplished by aggregating the performance data for all OCS operating companies to generate an annual OCS safety and environmental performance profile. The profile allows an operating company to weigh its individual performance against the industrywide performance. Over the longer term, industry and the public may use the aggregate data to assess performance trends. Keywords: performance measure, hsse reporting, hsse standard, operational safety, oc performance measure, oil spill, incident rate, environmental performance, us government, contingency planning Subjects: HSSE & Social Responsibility Management, Safety, Environment, HSSE reporting, HSSE standards, regulations and codes, Contingency planning and emergency response, Operational safety This content is only available via PDF. 2000. Not subject to copyright. This document was prepared by government employees or with government funding that places it in the public domain. You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.

Background Oil and Gas industry suffers from high accident rates because of the dangerous working conditions. Eastern Mediterranean countries have an immature Oil and Gas industry and therefore it is crucial for preventing accidents in this early stage to implement internationally proven successful policies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the accident prevention policies implemented by Norwegian government in 2001 were effective in reducing accident rates in the offshore Oil and Gas industry. Methods Data on the number of accidents, dates and type of facility (fixed or movable) for the years 1999-2006 were obtained from the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA). The effectiveness of the policy to reduce accident rates was estimated in interrupted time series analysis with post-intervention period the 1st of January 2001. Poisson regression was used to model the number of accident per months. Results The dataset had 96 months with a median number of accidents per month 6.5 (IQR: 4-10) for fixed facilities and 5.0 (IQR: 3-9) for movable facilities. The analysis suggested that there was a reduction in accident rates for fixed and movable facilities. Following the policy, there was a reduction in accidents of 45% for fixed facilities (rate ratio (RR) 0.55; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.47-0.64), while for movable facilities there was a decrease of 67% (RR 0.33; 95% CI 0.28-0.39). Conclusions The policies implemented by Norwegian government in 2001 were effective in reducing the accident rates for fixed and movable facilities. The immature Oil and Gas industry of the Eastern Mediterranean countries will be benefited from studying and adopting some of the policies implemented by Norwegian government. Key messages Norwegian policies for accident prevention in the offshore Oil and Gas industry were successful. Oil and Gas industry of Eastern Mediterranean countries should adopt proven successful policies to prevent accidents.

Diagnosis, control and treatment of diseases in offshore oil and gas (O&G) industry represents an important challenge for medicine and occupational health. More and more the operations, particularly in the Up stream sector, are carried out in remote and frontier areas. Working in O&G industry environment may be risky for the occurrence of acute medical events, and local medical structure are often either difficult to reach or their standards are not at the level that guaranty the efficiency requested by the Industry. This is why the training of medical personnel working in remote locations represents a crucial point for the best health protection of workers in these areas. More over, the medical personnel that work in our environment are requested to be all-ologist (Medical Officer, Hygienist, Occupational Health Specialist, General Practitioner, Gynaecologist, Paediatrician, Traumatologist, Infectious and Tropical Diseases Specialist, Medical Emergency Specialist, Medical Educator etc..). Unfortunately, there are no specific university courses in this area that would guaranty the adequate qualification. The same stays for dedicated applications of e-health courses, this last one becoming more and more important for guaranteeing high level of medical assistance in O&G industry. Saipem, a company of Eni S.p.A., one of the biggest contractors in Oil and Gas industry, has more than 32.000 employees working both off and on shore, within its organisation, as part of the QHSE Department, the company has developed the in-house medical department. Presently this one is formed by 290 medical doctors and nurses, coming form 34 different nationalities, working at 119 operating sites. It is obvious that these health care professionals are coming with, and are working in, different cultural, educational, professional back grounds. An important opportunity for improving and uniforming health care of people working and living in offshore O&G industry facilities is offered by telemedicine. The interest in applications of communication technologies in medical interventions (e-health and telemedicine) is growing world-wide and the use of these technologies in oil and gas industry may contribute to offer the best level of health care. Practitioners working in the field of O&G, although located in remote areas, via telemedicine can have access to second and third level specialist advice and can have a continuous update of their medical knowledge.

NOx emissions from the offshore installations in Norway have until now not been subject to regulations. As one of the main contributor of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, regulations have been foreseen. Several studies have been initiated on behalf of The Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF) since 1990 to acquire knowledge about the industry's NOx emissions. A common set of emission factors and a detailed inventory for NOx have been established. NOx reduction measures have been studied and installation of Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion technology for gas fueled turbines on new installations appears to be the most realistic NOx reduction measure in the near future. A cost efficiency curve for implementation of this technology has been established. Contribution to the environmental impact from the Norwegian oil and gas industry as regards acidification, fertilization and ground level ozone concentrations have been calculated based on first results obtained by a newly developed dispersion modeling tool. An open dialogue with relevant regulatory bodies was promoted throughout the studies. As a result, a common approach for NOx reductions has been found and results achieved have been utilized by the authorities in their work to establish a national action plan for NOx. Introduction Norway has ratified the 1988 Sofia Protocol on NOx to the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution which entered into force 14.02.1991. The Protocol called for a stabilization of emissions by 1994 compared to the 1987 level. Norway also signed a declaration of intent to reduce the NOx emissions further by 30% within 1998 based on the 1986 level. Projection of the national emissions shows that the objective for 1998 will not be met unless new measures are implemented. As the oil and gas industry contributes with 14% of the emissions on a national level in 1992, there is a need for reductions. Fig. 1 show the major contributors of NOx emissions in Norway and Fig. 2 the prognosis for the oil and gas industry until the year 2000. Regulation of NOx emissions has been foreseen. The introduction of a NOx tax is not considered to be an economically nor an efficient alternative to reduce NOx emissions. More cost efficient reductions can be achieved by other means where the industry and authorities join their forces. This has been the basic approach for work with environmental matters for the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry. As the authorities were working towards a national action plan for reductions of NOx, the industry needed to know more about its emissions, the possibilities for reduction and inherent cost in order to assess the potential future consequences for the industry. As this was an area of mutual interest within the different companies, work was conducted as a joint effort through OLF. Cooperation between OLF and the authorities was initiated in order to achieve a common understanding of the situation and to avoid double work. The purpose of this paper is to describe the approach to improve knowledge of the NOx emissions and to present results from three recently completed studies;Emission factors and inventory for the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS),evaluation of technologies for NOx reductions, including scenarios for implementation of Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion technology on gas fueled turbines with related cost efficiency calculations andenvironmental impact from the Norwegian oil and gas industry and contributions to acidification, fertilization and ground level ozone concentrations. A White Paper concerning Norwegian policy for handling NOx emissions was issued in June 1995. This opens up for negotiated agreements with the industry as a regulatory measure to facilitate reductions for e.g. NOx. In order to be prepared for possible negotiations on emission reductions, new studies were initiated in 1996. The scope is to establish cost efficiency figures for other NOx reduction technologies, including associated marine activities as well as further development of the dispersion modeling tool. P. 13^

The oil and gas industry will keep booming in the coming few decades. The intensifying need to obtain oil and gas from more challenging conventional and non-conventional resources will impose very considerable demands on the sector's human, financial and technology capabilities. Since the future supplies of conventional and non-conventional oil and gas are to expand, it will become increasingly necessary to obtain access to resources in more technologically advanced areas. Oil and gas technologies will be destined for hostile, hard-to-reach environments, which could be very costly to operate in the coming future. The offshore oil industry is a complicated myriad of equipment, structures, and work force. Our previous work has discussed the challenges of robotics and automation in the offshore oil&gas industry with severe work conditions. This paper reviews the current technology, presents the requirements of robotics and automation in the oil&gas industry and discusses future research opportunities from a technical perspective. Our objectives are to identify potential applications and research directions of robotics and automation in the oil&gas field and explore the obstacles and challenges of robotic application to this area.

This thesis addresses the collapse of the sturgeon fisheries in the Caspian Sea through the prism of the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), which recognises that the health of fisheries is dependent on the overall health of the ecosystems sustaining the species. It is argued that the conventional approach to fisheries management, which involves the regulation of catches, fishing gear, areas and seasons, is currently incapable of preventing the continued loss of sturgeon species in the Caspian Sea due to the loss of the spawning grounds, pollution and habitat degradation by various human developments. Recovery of the sturgeon fisheries is only possible with the recovery and protection of the Caspian ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, this study proposes a broad regulatory framework for the conservation and management of sturgeon species based on the EAF tools, carefully selected to suit the circumstances of the Caspian region and the characteristic feature of the sturgeon fisheries. The undertaken study involves a two-stage process. The first stage is context setting: introducing the Caspian Sea region and its economic and geo-political circumstances, such as the unresolved legal status of the Caspian Sea and its implications for sturgeon fisheries, as well as the growing impacts of the offshore oil and gas industry. The sturgeon fishery, its history, cultural, environmental and economic significance is also outlined, together with a critical analysis of the current regulatory framework at the national, regional and international levels. The thesis argues that the regional level is the most suitable one to maximise the conservation and management of the sturgeon fisheries in line with EAF principles. The regulatory regime proposed in this thesis, is, therefore, primarily based on the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea (2003), in conjunction with the recently signed Agreement on Conservation and Rational Use of the Caspian Bioresources (ACRUCB) (2014). The second stage of the study involves building a new region-wide sturgeon fisheries regime based on selected EAF tools, focusing on examples and lessons from other marine areas of the world, such as the North and the Mediterranean seas. These tools are mostly directed towards the wider aim of the protection of the Caspian Sea ecosystem from human developments and include: transboundary environmental impact assessment, regulation of the offshore oil and gas industry pollution and the creation of marine protected areas to safeguard sturgeon habitat and species. The study also discusses the formation of the Caspian regional fisheries management organisation to provide a platform for the cooperation of the Caspian states in the area of sturgeon fisheries conservation and management. It is submitted that the application of these tools can assist in providing faster recovery of the sturgeon fisheries in the Caspian Sea region and will ensure that the Caspian Sea ecosystem is protected from further destruction.

Floating offshore wind is an emerging industry. The first floating offshore wind turbine designed by Principle Power was deployed offshore Portugal to support a 2-MW wind turbine generator in 2011. The turbine is supported by a proprietary semi-submersible concept named WindFloat. Since then, more than ten floating offshore wind turbines including eight additional WindFloat platforms have been installed and commissioned to produce power offshore. There are significant experiences built from the engineering delivery of the FOWT units. Compared with offshore oil and gas industry, the offshore wind energy industry is still young. A great part of the design methodology for FOWT is inherited from the offshore oil and gas industry. But there are many design aspects which are unique to the FOWT because of the operational differences between FOWT and FPU for oil and gas industry. This paper will give a brief description of the design methodology for FOWT based on the experience built from the delivery of multiple WindFloat floating foundations. The methodology, which is inherited from oil and gas, but being improved or customized for FOWT will be discussed in detail. The subjects to be addressed in the paper include the engineering interface between WTG and the floating substructure, the floating stability assessment, wind load simulation, the determination of the duration of the numerical simulations and the number of random seeds, and the validation with model test results. As the wind turbine power capacity becomes larger, the floating substructure and its associated mooring system follows a trend of growing dimensions, which is more comparable with the FPU. The growth of the floating offshore wind industry will leverage the lessons learned from offshore oil and gas industry.

Environmental impact from offshore oil and gas exploration and production is likely to arise from five main sources—produced formation water, drilling fluids and cuttiftgs, industrial chemicals used in production activities, accidental oil spills and the physical disruption of the marine environment by coastal and offshore engineering works. The principle task of environmental managers is to evaluate the risk of impact on the marine environment from their company's activities and to formulate and implement company policy and procedures aimed at minimising this risk. Of critical importance is the determination of the extent and scope of the environmental program designed to control and monitor impacts.The development of environmental management programs in the oil and gas industry involves two main processes—ecological risk assessment and formulation of a monitoring program. This review outlines the steps involved in ecological risk assessment with specific reference to the offshore oil and gas industry. Information is presented on the basic principles involved in risk assessment, the main source of environmental impact from offshore oil and gas exploration and production and the different approaches that can be used to predict and monitor impacts. Approaches for improving the cost efficiency of ecotoxicological testing are discussed. Results of recent ecotoxicological studies on a biocide preparation and two corrosion inhibitors used in oil and gas production activities on the North West Shelf are also presented.

The oil and gas industry will keep booming in the coming few decades. Because it becomes more and more challenging to obtain oil and gas from conventional and non-conventional resources, there will be considerable demands on the labor, financial capabilities and technology development. Since the future supplies of oil and gas will expand, more advanced technology will become increasingly necessary to obtain conventional and non-conventional oil and gas. The offshore oil industry is a complicated myriad of equipment, structures, and work force. Before any real vision of the potential roles of robotics and automation in offshore oil processes can emerge, the processes related to oil and gas must be enumerated appropriately. Therefore, this study performs the necessary survey and investigation about the work conditions of robotics and automation equipment in oil and gas industry, especially offshore oil rigs. The oil &gas industry processes are first investigated. The personals and tasks are then explored. The challenges and requirements are identified for robotics and automation applications in the oil and gas industry. Our objectives are to explore the opportunities and challenges of robotics and automation in the oil and gas area.