American University of Nigeria

School of Art& Science

Petroleum Chemistry &Engineering

Gervais MANIZABAYO (AOOO15909)

Reservoir Engineering (PET 201)
Dr. Feyisayo Victoria Adams

IMPACTS OF PETROLEUM EXPLORATION AND

PRODUCTION to OUR ENVIRONMENT:

Past,

Present and Future

Abstract
Since the beginning petroleum exploration and the production, humans,
plants, animals both marine and continental have been suffering till today.
The activities associated with petroleum exploration and production such as
seismic activities and drilling, gas flaring and oil spills pose threats on
human beings, wildlife and plants. Before and during these activities, forests
and plants must be all swiped off for roads construction and equipment
disposal, air gun or dynamites must be exploded, Toxic-containing produced
water must be discharged into the environment and unwanted associated
gas must be burnt. As consequence of these actvivities, the fertility of the
soil decreases, people fall sick day and nights while others die, some animals
and plant species unable to resist the changing environment got extinct,
aquatic animals die. What was a friendly environment becomes inhospitable,
and many people are forced to relocate to safe areas. The effects of oil
exploration and production go beyond the local level to the global level
because gas flaring contributes to global warming and climate change.

Drilling activities
The next stage following exploration of crude oil is drilling; getting out
of the reservoir rock. Depending on the type of reservoir in place, oil may be
produced with associated natural gas and produced water, and so many
other impurities. Water produced along with oil usually contains a large

amount of dissolved salt, naturally occurring radioactive materials such as

Radium 226/228, inorganic and organic compounds and toxic metals
(Kharaka &Nancy, 2005). When discharged into the environment, this water
can contaminate soils, surface and ground water. As a consequence, aquatic
animals die, people cannot have access to pure to drinking and bathing
water, some people fall sick unexpectedly because of using contaminated
water and the agricultural production decreases as well. During drilling, a
large amount of associated gas may be produced depending on the type of
reservoir, and in most countries where they do not have gas treatment
plants at the production site, this gas is usually burnt off, and the result is
the increased air pollution.

Gas flaring activities

Gas flaring is the most challenging environmental issues the world has
been facing since the beginning of petroleum production. During its earlier
stage of development, the oil and gas E&P industry faced major challenges
and one of them was produced associated gas disposal; they had to be burn
it. May be this is because oil alone could meet energy demand; or they did
not know the impacts of gas flaring on the environment; or they knew but
lack technology of how the treat the gas for domestics and industrial use.
Gas flaring releases enormous amounts of poisonous chemicals such as
sulfur dioxide, Nitrogen, dioxide and other volatile hydrocarbons such as
xylene, toluene and benzene in the atmosphere, and this poses harmful
effects on humans, animals and the ecosystem in generals. It has been found
that humans who live close gas flaring areas can be attacked by respiration
diseases such asthma and blood related diseases as well as leukemia.
According to the World Bank data, between 140 and 150 billion cubic meters
of natural gas is flared and released to the atmosphere every year; however
due to technological progress and measures taken by governments, the gas
flaring has decreased by 20% from 2005 t0 2011(Zoheir and Jorg, 2013).
Though the global trend is of gas flaring is declining, the data from 1994 to
2011 show that Russia, Nigeria and United States of American are still the
top gas flaring countries in the world.
Global gas flaring trends chart: Source: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association (1994-2006) and World Bank (2007-2011).

Oil spillage
In addition to gas flaring, oil spills control is still a major challenges
associated with the production of petroleum. According to the United States
National Academy of Science, petroleum production activities have caused
the release of about 38,000 tons of hydrocarbons into the world Oceans
every year. The spillage of petroleum cause a lot of problems in the
ecosystems, and these includes environmental pollution, animal and human
health problems, socio-economic problems and degradation of host
communities. Oil spillage is responsible for surface and ground water
contamination and this prevent people from having access to drinking and
clean bathing water. Oil spillage is not a new phenomenon; however, due to
new measures taken by governments and Multinational Corporations, and
improved technology in oil transportation, the incidents of oil spills are
gradually reducing. According to the International Tanker Owners Pollution
Federation, a non-profit organization established to control marine spills of
oil, chemicals and other hazardous substances, about 1,113,000 tons of oil
was lost by spillage in 1994 alone compared to 26,000 tones recorded
between 2010 and 2014. The trend of gas flaring gives hope for a clean
marine environment in the future.

Quantities of Oil Spilt in 2014 (Source: ITOFC, Oil Tanker Spill Statistics 2014).

Source: Journal title Just oil? The distribution of Environmental and Social
Impacts of Oil Production and Consumption, published in 2013 (By Dara
ORourke and Sarah Connolly).

Seismic activities

There has been ongoing research about the effects of offshore seismic
activities on aquatic animals, especially fishes, and it was found that
depending on the intensity of sound generated by air guns or other types of
explosion, a lot of fishes and larvae can die. The powerful noises also have a
great effect on fish eggs and thus reduce the overall fishing production.
Cleary, though petroleum continue the important source of energy to human
beings and the most precious global commodity on international market, its
exploration and production activities affects local and global community at
large. Air, water, soil pollution remains the major issues associated with the
exploration and production of petroleum. However, due technological
advance, the amount of flared has been decreased. From, 2005 to 2011 only,
the gas flared was decreased by 20%. New methods to treat produces water
before being discharged to the environment are being developed and applied
in different parts of the world. Due to advance in technology, increased
commitment to fighting pollution, there is hope that the impacts of
petroleum exploration and production to our environment will be reduced to
a very low level in years to come.

Work Cited
Ebrahim, Zoheir, and Jorg Friedrichs. "Gas Flaring: The Burning Issue." N.p., 3
Sept. 2013. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.resilience.org
%2Fstories%2F2013-09-03%2Fgas-flaring-the-burning-issue>.
International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation. "Oil Tanker Spill Statistics
2014." Statistics. N.p., 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.itopf.com/knowledge-resources/data-statistics/statistics/>.
Kharaka, Yousif K., and Nancy S. Dorsey. "Environmental Issues of Petroleum
Exploration and Production: Introduction." Environmental Geosciences 12.2
(2005): 61-63. Oxics.usgs.gov. Web.
<http://toxics.usgs.gov/pubs/KharakaIntro.PDF>.