NATIONAL POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL

Faculty of Engineering Geology and Petroleum

WATER TREATMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF PRODUCTION

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF PRODUCED WATER AND

DRILLING WASTE DISCHARGES FROM THE NORWEGIAN
OFFSHORE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

NAME: Paola Artos

DATE: October 27, 2016
 Offshore oil and gas activities have been established on the Norwegian
Continental Shelf (NCS) over the past 40 years

122 small incidents

were reported with
a total oil discharge
of 16 m3

2016 2012 2010 2009 2007 1990 1976

65 oil and gas Norwegian Large chemical spills The discharge of cuttings
producing production of oil came from leakages with oil based drilling mud
fields are in and gas was 226 from injection wells. was the main source of oil
operation million standard hydrocarbons entering the
cubic meters marine environment
 COMPOSITION:
 Dispersed oil
DEFINITION:
 Aromatic
Is water from the
hydrocarbons
formation produced
 Alkylphenols
along with oil or
 Heavy metals
gas
 Etc.
PRODUCED
WATER
PW

TROUBLE:
 The large overall discharge volumes
 the complex content of partially hazardous chemicals
 the lack of knowledge on possible long term ecological impact

PW discharges has made the strongest target for concern and

research in recent years.
 COMPOSITION OF PW

BTEX are BTEX are rarely

considered major included when
toxicants in PW: considering the
 Benzene effects of PW since
 Toluene they evaporate
 Ethyl benzene rapidly from
 Xylenes seawater

The effects of PW
discharges must be
based on field-
specific with
detailed chemical
characterization of
each PW effluent.
 It is difficult to quantify  Semi-permeable
environmental membrane
concentrations of PW sampling devices have devices
compounds by direct been developed  Polar organic
extraction with chemical
organic solvents or integrated
using absorbents sampler

MEASUREMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL LEVELS
OF CONTAMINANTS
FIELD STUDIES USE OF “-OMIC”
 Comprise direct APPROACHES
measurements  Increase our
and estimates understanding of
levels of PW ENVIRONMENTAL the mechanisms
compounds in EFFECTS involved in the
the water responses of
column marine organisms
to toxicants.
ENDOCRINE AND
REPRODUCTIVE
EFFECTS
Can affect a number of
reproductive
parameters in fish,
including:
 gonadal
development
 induction of plasma
 oogenesis
 COMPOSITION:
 Liquid PLONOR: Pose Little or No
 Aditives Risk to the Environment
DEFINITION:
crushed rock cuttings
from the borehole TYPES OF DRILLING MUD:
and remnants of drill DRILLING  water based muds (WBM)
mud WASTE  oil based muds (OBM)
 Synthetic muds (SM)

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

WBM CUTTINGS
 Toxicity is low
 May cause biological effects
 POPULATION
AND ECOSYSTEM
EFFECTS

DRILLING WASTE
PRODUCED WATER
 Affects the sediment
ecosystem
Significant biological
effects on pelagic
organisms will be limited
 Operational discharges from the offshore industry have created public
concern because they represent a very large continuous input of
contaminants to the sea from many widely dispersed point sources.

 It is notoriously difficult to study effects of the discharges on populations

 This review shows a wealth of studies on the effects of produced water

on individuals of important species, and on the effects of drilling waste
on benthic communities.