Hazard and environmental

concerns in petroleum
sector

Environmental Pollution

Hydrocarbon molecules -crude oil and petroleum products are

highly toxic to many organisms, including humans
Contains trace amounts of sulphur and nitrogen compounds
Dangerous - can react with the environment to produce
secondary poisonous chemicals
Populated areas and ecosystems around the globe

Smoke is pouring from a refinery burn off vent

 Oil spills occur : transportation of crude oil from

exporting to importing nations
Crude oil travels for long distances by either ocean
tanker or land pipeline, and both methods are prone to
accidents
Oil may also spill at the site where it is extracted, as in
the case of a blowout
Blowout is one of the major risks of drilling for oil
Occurs when gas trapped inside the deposit is at such a
high pressure that oil suddenly erupts out of the drill
shaft in a geyser
"Ten Largest Oil Spills in History"

1. Sea Island
Installations, Persian
Gulf, Kuwait

January 26, 1991

240,000,000 gallons
(816,327 tons)

2. Ixtoc I exploratory well,

Bahia del Campeche,
June 3, 1979
Mexico

140,000,000 gallons
(476,190 tons)

3. Production well,
Fergana Valley,
Uzbekistan

March 2, 1992

88,000,000 gallons
(299,320 tons)

4. Nowruz No. 3 well,

Persian Gulf, Nowruz
Field, Iran

February 4, 1983

80,000,000 gallons
(272,109 tons)

5. Tanker Castillo de
Bellver , Table Bay, South August 6, 1983
Africa

78,500,000 gallons
(267,007 tons)

6.Tanker Amoco Cadiz ,

off Portsall, Brittany,
March 16, 1978
France

68,668,000 gallons
(233,565 tons)

7. Tanker Odyssey ,
North Atlantic Ocean, off
November 10, 1988
St. John's,
Newfoundland, Canada

43,100,000 gallons
(146,600 tons)

8. Tanker Atlantic
Empress , Caribbean Sea, July 19, 1979
Trinidad and Tobago

42,704,000 gallons
(145,252 tons)

9. Tanker Haven ,
Genoa, Italy

42,000,000 gallons
(142,857 tons)

April 11, 1991

10. Production well D103, 800 km southeast of August 1, 1980

Tripoli, Libya

42,000,000 gallons
(142,857 tons)

Nonpoint sources
Majority of pollution from oil is from nonpoint sources, where
small amounts coming from many different places over a long
period of time add up to large-scale effects
70% of the oil released by human activity into oceans
worldwide is a result of small spills during petroleum
consumption
These minor unreported spills can include routine discharges
of fuel from commercial vessels or leakage from recreational
boats
Oil tends to collect in hazardous concentrations in the stream
of wastewater coming out of cities and other populated areas

Runoff from asphalt-covered roads and parking lots enters storm drains,
streams, and lakes and eventually travels to the ocean, affecting all of the
ecosystems through which it passes.
As cities grow, more and more people use petroleum productslubricants,
solvents, oil-based paint, and, above all, gasolineand these are often
improperly disposed of down drains and sewage pipes.
Industrial plants also produce small, chronic spills that aren't noticed
individually, but add up over time and enter waterways.
Taken together, land-based river and urban runoff sources constitute over half
of the petroleum pollution introduced to North American coastal waters due
to human activity, and 20 percent of the petroleum pollution introduced to
ocean waters worldwide.

 When wastewater from these sources enters the marine

environment it is usually by means of an estuary, an area
where freshwater from land mixes with seawater. Estuaries are
especially critical habitats for a variety of plants and animals,
and are among the ecosystems most sensitive to pollutants.

Petroleum-Contaminated Soil
Not all oil released from land sources is quickly washed away to
sea
Pipeline and oil-well accidents, unregulated industrial waste, and
leaking underground storage tanks can all permanently contaminate
large areas of soil, making them economically useless as well as
dangerous to the health of organisms living in and around them
Removing or treating soil contaminated by petroleum is especially
urgent because the hydrocarbons can leach into the underlying
groundwater and move into human residential areas

 Bioremediation, bacteria that feed on hydrocarbons and

transform them into carbon dioxide can be applied to an
affected area
Bioremediation has in many cases made cleaning up
petroleum-contaminated sites a profitable real-estate
investment for land developers