Environmental issues have been a key challenge for the oil and gas industry for many years, but recent technological advances are helping the industry to clean up its act.
As global demand for oil and gas continues to soar, the issue of environmental responsibility is becoming more and more prominent. With the age of easy oil well being truly over, oil and gas exploration teams are being pushed into more and more obscure locations in the search for a secure energy supply for future generations.
ExxonMobil’s decision to begin drilling in Russia’s Arctic Circle, despite US sanctions, shows how the world’s oil and gas firms are increasingly looking to move into more and more challenging environments. This decision has been met with huge amounts of opposition by protest groups who believe that natural environments are being desecrated by the oil and gas industry.
Public pressure in recent years has forced the oil and gas community to sharpen its focus on environmental issues. Regional governments are also taking steps to protect environmentally sensitive areas. In the Middle East, the UAE is leading the way by drafting a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, to help oil and gas firms operating in its waters effectively contain the environmental impact of an oil spill.
Many companies operating in the Middle East are now realising that improved efficiency and environmental responsibility can often go hand in hand, meaning that a greener outlook can help to improve a company’s financial performance.
“Honestly speaking, Adnoc has been doing this job for many years in terms of saving energy and maintaining the environment. We have had many contributions from inside the organisation as well as our partners in the environmental authorities and different specialist firms,” says Mohamed Al Shamma, vice president for public relations at Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco).
“Thanks to these strategies and the considerable efforts that have been made over the years, now we can see the results. In terms of CO2 capturing, Adnoc has made a lot of progress. Ten to fifteen years ago if you flew over our fields, you would see many flares. Now there is almost zero flaring, which is a major achievement,” he explains.
Enhanced oil recovery techniques are offering companies the opportunity to boost their production levels whilst improving their environmental record.
“In addition to the capture of CO2 to control pollution levels, we are injecting the CO2 in the wells so we utilise this CO2 instead of wasting it. It is the same with the gas flaring. Before we used to flare the gas, now we reinject the excess gas that we are getting, to increase the flow of oil. Before we used to inject water, now we inject gas and soon we will be injecting CO2,” adds Al Shamma.
Ultimately, the Middle East is attempting to become more proactive on environmental issues. This is a prudent attitude to take, given that the cost of reacting to a major environmental incident can often dwarf the investment needed to mitigate the problem in the first place.
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“No company, large or small, wants to be the one making headlines. Reputational management and integrity of operations is critical, as the primary responsibility for ensuring health and safety in the oil and gas industry lies with those who create risks and those who work with them,” says Jason Knights, global communications manager for Lloyds Register Energy.
Addressing environmental challenges favours a bold approach to act rather than react and offers companies the opportunity to rethink what safety means and what it can do for business.
“For those operators who place integrity at the core of what they do, the benefits are manifold, from improved performance and maximum production rates to cementing the right business reputation to profit from emerging opportunities and reduced risks to the environment,” explains Knights.
“Environmental responsibility is about much more than producing less CO2. It is about significantly cutting all emissions produced during the complex processes along the entire energy conversion chain. “That’s why companies like Lloyd’s Register Energy are helping customers to deliver safe, reliable and sustainable facilities, systems and processes that help to make the most of available resources while leaving our environment unharmed by the world’s growing energy demands,” he says.
One of the key charges levelled at the oil and gas industry by environmental lobbyists is that the harsh chemicals, used in the oil production process leach back into the water table, causing irreparable damage to ecosystems.
This area has recently seen a surge in activity with a number of companies developing environmentally friendly alternatives to ecologically damaging chemicals.
International Oil Company Wintershall have engineered the biopolymer Schizophyllan, which is designed for use in place of chemical polymers used in Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).
Schizophyllan is generated using a fungus and produces a natural sugar that is used as a thickening agent, and which, most importantly, is 100% biologically degradable.
When used in EOR, the natural biopolymer makes the water solution injected into the reservoir more viscous, sweeping the residual oil from the reservoir.
This technology is being developed together with Wintershall’s parent company, BASF and is currently being tested by Wintershall in an oil field in north Germany, onshore. The product is also being tested by Gazprom. Closer to home, UAE based company Epygen have created a range of biochemicals which can be used in the removal of filter cake from a reservoir’s capillary system.
Declining productivity levels are a key problem for many of the region’s oilfield operators. Amongst the key factors in declining productivity levels in green and brownfield sites across the region is the build up of filter cake within the well’s capillary system. In the same way that cholesterol builds up in the human vascular system causing blockage and eventually heart attack, residual bi-products found in drilling solutions build up over time and block an oil reservoirs capillaries.
Amongst the most common solutions to this problem is to inject hydrochloric acid into the well to burn off the filter cake blockage, which presents numerous environmental problems.
“When companies pump acid into the well, is can leak out through the heel or simply form wormholes. When the acid leaks out, it runs away and you are unable to remove the filter cake completely. It is not a very efficient way of doing things and it is also extremely environmentally hazardous,” says Debayan Ghosh, chief executive officer of Epygen.
With HSE legislation in the region becoming more and more stringent, oil and gas companies are having to consider the environmental impact of their actions now more than ever.
Ghosh believes that these challenges present oilfield operators with an opportunity to guide the oil and gas industry down a more ecologically responsible path.
Using biochemical in place of harsh acids and chemicals presents a genuine opportunity for NOCs to significantly reduce their costs, according to Ghosh.
