Environmental Consequences of Offshore Oil Drilling

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Environmental Consequences of Offshore Oil
Drilling

• Marina Heberer and Peter Prentiss
• 16 October 2008
• ENVI 300

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Areas of Effects

• Air Pollution
• Water Pollution
• Destruction of Land
• Pre-drilling Seismic Testing Hazards
• Finished Projects
• Organism Impact

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Air Pollution

• Every year, an average oil platform produces
  214,000 pounds of air pollutants, including
• 50 tons of nitrous oxides
• 13 tons of carbon monoxide
• 6 tons of sulfur oxides
• 5 tons of volatile organic hydrocarbons
• all precursors to smog, acid rain, global warming

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Water Pollution

• Drill muds,drill cuttings, production formation
  water
• BTEX the collective name for benzene, toluene,
  ethyl benzene, and xylenes
• volatile aromatic compounds found in discharges,
  and petroleum oils and its products
• BTEX compounds are acutely toxic to aquatic
  organisms if contact is maintained
• BTEX are generally neurotoxic to target
  organisms.
• Benzene, in particular, has also been found to be
  carcinogenic to mammals and humans.

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Oil and gas operations dump more than 1 billion
pounds of mercury-contaminated drilling fluids
into the Gulf each year. Mercury levels in the
sand around some Gulf rigs are three times higher
than levels found at EPA Superfund sites where
fishing is prohibited. Mercury levels in marine
creatures living around these rigs are at least
25 times higher than in fish found elsewhere in
the Gulf A single production platform, which can
drill 50-100 wells, discharges over 90,000 metric
tons of drilling fluid and metal cuttings into
the ocean. A single exploratory well dumps
approximately 25,000 pounds of toxic metals into
the ocean.
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Concerns of hazardous discharges
bioaccumulation that may lead to humans (ie
radium from PFW taken up by marine organisms,
bioconcentrates into marine food web)
accumulation of muds and drill cuttings on sea
floor that may smother benthic and other marine
organisms organic hydrocarbon group, PAH
(polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are extremely
harmful to marine life found to cause life-cycle
mutagenic damage to eggs of Pink salmon in the
years following the Exxon Valdez oil spill at
levels of only two parts per billion.
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PLATFORM HAZARDS There have been 187 large oil
spills on the OCS, each emitting more than 2100
gallons into the Gulf of Mexico, between 1981 and
2005 From 1995-2001, 32 explosions were reported
to MMS (Mineral Management Services)over half of
these (65) occurred during production
operations. Equipment failure caused about 46
percent of the explosions, human error
contributed to about 38 percent of the
explosions, and the remainder resulted from other
causes Offshore pipelines and platforms spilled
1.8 million gallons of oil in US waters from
1990-1999an average of almost 500 gallons a day.
MMS has shown a gradual increase in LOWC (Loss
of Well Control) over the past seven years 7
LOWC in the GOM during 2007, two of which caused
surface flow of oil and two caused underground
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ORGANISM IMPACT BIRDS AND MAMMALS Migratory and
Seabirds hydrophobic nature of oil causes
plumage to lose waterproofing, insulation and
buoyancy, leading to death by hypothermia,
exhaustion and starvation oil can be ingested or
inhaled while preening feathers, and ingested
while eating contaminated prey, causes reduced
survival and lifetime reproductive success. Birds
have instinctual attraction to lights and flares
of the platforms, causing them to circle and
hover above the platforms for days, which leads
to death by collision, impact, burning and
starvation Gulf of Mexico more than 200,000
birds are die annually
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Whales and Marine Mammals Seismic Testing
discharge of thousands of high-intensity blasts
from powerful airguns, creating a strong shock
wave through the ocean that pounds into the
seabed, located and survey potential oil
supplies significant behavioral impacts of whales
can occur due to seismic testing, has been proven
to lead to stranding,and increased mortality in
marine mammals as a result of hearing
damage testing masks biologically significant
sounds ie communication and finding food,
avoiding predators, finding mates
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Vulnerability to Hurricanes

• Despite claims that platforms are minimally
  affected by hurricanes and severe weather, in
  2005, 7 million gallons of oil were spilled
  during Hurricane Rita and Katrina
• Katrina destroyed 115, damaged 52 and set 19
  adrift
• damaged 457 pipelines, bringing oil and wastes
  onshore

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• ONSHORE DAMAGE
• offshore drilling requires many forms of
  infrastructure on an onshore facility including
  roads, docks, buildings, plants, etc.
• these infrastructures can cause environmental
  degradation of coastal ecosystems, beach closures
  and pollution,
• Onshore spills are the source of most of
• the pipeline spillage into U.S. waters92 percent
  or
• more in each decade

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• ECONOMIC DAMAGE TO LOCAL TOURISM AND FISHERIES
• decrease in tourism of coastal towns
• In 1979, a GOM oil spill off the coast of Texas
  caused tar balls to wash up on local beaches,
  causing a 60 decrease in the states tourism
• communities are forced to sacrifice the natural
  beaches and coastlines for big oil
  refineries...Floridas tourist economy brings in
  50 billion annually
• fisheries economy (Canadian Journal of Fisheries
  and Aquatic Sciences)
• Seismic shooting severely affected fish
  distribution, local abundance, and catch rates in
  the entire investigation area of 40 40 nautical
  miles. Trawl catches of cod and haddock and
  longline catches of haddock declined on average
  by about 50 (by mass) after shooting
  startedReductions in catch rates were observed
  18 nautical miles from the seismic shooting area
  (3 10 nautical miles), but the most pronounced
  reduction occurred within the shooting area,
  where trawl catches of both species and longline
  catches of haddock were reduced by about 70 and
  the longline catches of cod by 45...

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PCFFA (Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermans
Association) Seismic Testing. The sound blasts
kill small foraging fish and scare other fish off
making fishing difficult Loss of Fishing Grounds.
Fishing grounds are lost to the placement of rigs
and the safety zones placed around rigs where
fishing is prohibited. Moreover, debris left on
the seafloor from offshore drilling operations
can damage or destroy fishing gear Chronic Small
Spills. Large major oil spills from rigs are
relatively rare, however, chronic, unreported
small spills are frequent that can foul fishing
gear or taint the catch Loss of Port
Infrastructure. Offshore oil and gas operations
often displace commercial fishing facilities
(marinas, fish processing plants, ice houses,
etc) making fishing operations difficult to
conduct Contamination of Fish. Fish found around
oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have high
concentrations of mercury and heavy metals,
making these fish questionable for consumption.
Much of the contamination is associated with the
drill muds and their disposal on the seafloor
near the rigs
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• ECONOMIC DRAWBACKS
• how will OCS drilling affect our economy?
• According to the EIA (Energy Information
  Administration of US Govt) The projections in
  the OCS access case indicate that access to the
  Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would
  not have a significant impact on domestic crude
  oil and natural gas production or prices before
  2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012,
  and production would not be expected to start
  before 2017. Total domestic production of crude
  oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case
  is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the
  reference case
• Because oil prices are determined on the
  international market, any impact on average
  wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant
• Although a significant volume of undiscovered,
  technically recoverable oil and natural gas
  resources is added in the OCS access case,
  conversion of those resources to production would
  require both time and money.

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Alternatives to Offshore Drilling
Spending all this effort to go after oil
offshore for a few months supply makes no sense
when we could be developing permanent renewable
energy in the same time frame. David Bitts,
President of PCFFA According to the US Dept of
Energy, if the global consumption of renewable
energy sources remains constant, the world's
available fossil fuel reserves will be consumed
in 104 years or early in the 22nd century wind,
solar, more fuel efficient cars
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Current US Energy Sources