Long-term Environmental Effects of Offshore Oil and Gas Development

Abstract

Of the many issues regarding the effects of expanded offshore development, the potential for long-term and insidious effects on the marine environment has frustrated resolution. This book provides an assessment of the long-term environmental effects of offshore oil and gas development activities. It presents technical information on oil and gas production and the physical, chemical and biological processes which transport and transform pollutants within the marine environment. It focusses on those marine environmental effects which are long-lasting, having an effect for more than two years, and which may be deleterious to human resources and ecosystem integrity. An evaluation of environmental effects is given, by the interpretation of the relative risks, based on the probability and severity of effects and on the potential that new scientific information or interpretation of existing information can contribute to the resolution of an issue.