Implementation of ISO-14000 Standards In Routine Environmental Management of Oil And Gas Fields By Means of GIS And Remote Sensing
Authors: Jellema Jan , Tchistiakov Alexei 
Published: March 2010

All industrialized countries face the challenge to combine long term, low cost energy supply and continuous reduction of the environmental impact. Therefore the strategic target of the HSE standards is the sustainable and environmentally sound development of the Earth's energy resources. The main goal of our research is the development of a new environmental management methodology supported by software tools for implementation of the ISO-14000 standards in oil and gas operations.

On one hand, this methodology has to be generic; on the other hand, the proposed methods of environmental impact assessment must be applicable for each specific situation. We have reinterpreted the ISO environmental monitoring model in terms of remote sensing survey and GIS models.

Besides storage of the scalable earth surface and underground information, the methodology and suggested software tools allow for the modelling of the interaction between engineering objects and the environment during full life cycle of oil and gas fields starting from their exploration until their abandonment.

The remote sensing methods reviewed in this article, as well as the suggested methodology, can be applied for a wide range of targets in different regions. Some examples are the monitoring of pipelines in the North Sea or Mexican Gulf, control of pipeline security or vegetation degradation in tropical countries, as well as monitoring of oil operations in remote Arctic locations.

Introduction

Protection of the environment, the health and safety of citizens, and sustainable and economically effective exploitation of domestic natural resources are key issues in many industrially developed countries. The international Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) regulations have been finalized in the ISO-14000 standards. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development (UNCED), as well as the International Expert Meeting on Environmental Practices in Offshore Oil and Gas Activities (Reference Technical Background document, 1997) have emphasized the significance of implementation of the international environmental standards and innovation of environmental monitoring systems in oil and gas operations.

However, oilfield oriented database management (or monitoring) systems, currently available on the market, contain mainly (or only) exploration and production (E&P) inventory databases. They do not include any environment, health or safety related parameters or functions. Moreover, in spite of the tremendous progress in information technologies (such as GIS, remote sensing, Internet), they are hardly used either in oilfield environmental management systems or in E&P databases.

Objectives

In the last few years, there have been numerous cases of largescale environmental damage caused by oil and gas production. They involve contamination of surface water, underground water and marine seawater, agricultural soils, air pollution, etc. In many countries, extensive development of the oil industry has resulted in degradation of other natural resources, including deforestation of the surroundings of exploration and production facilities. Thus, oil and gas exploitation needs to improve on the point of environmental side effects. Unfortunately, there are no broadly available software tools for long-term comprehensive environmental monitoring. Therefore, TNO-NITG has initiated a new project aimed at the development of an Integrated Oil and Gas Environmental Monitoring and Management System (IOGEMMS).