AWE International | Issue 30
Air Quality Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction
The arrival of commercial shale gas exploration in Europe, on the back of its success in the United States, has already proven controversial. There are large reserves and its successful production is likely to be welcomed in terms of its impact on energy supply and prices. In the Unites States (US) gas prices have dropped by almost an order of magnitude over recent years, and continue to drop - a very different picture to that experienced in Europe until recently.
Drying Out The Water Cycle
The global demand for goods is placing greater pressure on our available water reserves, with water scarcity an issue that an increasing number of regions already have to cope with. Coupled to this demand are projected climate changes to our rainfall, snowfall and temperature patterns. The long term effects of such change influence how much water is available for domestic or industrial use. Considering the lifetime of infrastructure means planners and operators must consider these predictions to maintain their operations. One area where climate change impacts are expected to be felt strongly is in changes to the water cycle. Access to water is a topic that is more frequently in the news, though ‘water resources’ has a specific meaning to different user groups. Whether water is withdrawn for use in domestic, agriculture, manufacturing or electricity production, certain key criteria need to be met. This is true for the extracted water as well as return flow to natural environments. In many locations across the globe over exploitation is posing a threat to water resources, placing certain sectors at risk. Considering the overall availability of freshwater in Europe, water appears to be abundant with total resources reported around 2270 km3/yr; of this only 13% is abstracted. These figures give the impression that water is sufficient to meet demands; however, in many locations this is not the case. Demand is often greater than availability which leads to problems of water scarcity, lower lake volumes, reduced flow in rivers and drying of wetlands. The detrimental impacts can be seen on freshwater systems but also on water users. Changes in rainfall patterns and rising temperatures - whether due to climate change or human actions - have a strong bearing on our river systems’ ability to meet the demands from different sectors (e.g. agriculture, domestic, industry) both now and in the future. On a global scale, anthropogenic disturbances are already altering flows, though understanding of the issues is growing which is leading to construction of resilience and policy on these issues.
Ion Chromatography in Environmental Analysis
Faced with inorganic ions and the impact of industrial pollutants, analysts discover the advantages of ion chromatography’s broad range of applications over other forms of environmental monitoring.
Maintaining Integrity in Sample Preparation
Environmental samples comprise a wide range of matrices, each presenting the laboratory with analytical challenges. Analytical techniques and guidance documents exist to direct the laboratory to use the most appropriate sample preparation technique, but it is also crucial that the end user of the analytical data generated is aware of the preparation techniques which may be employed, and those that may be inappropriate for the sample matrix or test.
Measuring the Temperature of Industrial Success
When we think of productive, efficient industrial output, many drivers may spring to mind: innovative thinking, strong research and development and of course a workforce to drive the end result. What may not come to mind is reliable temperature measurement; but, put simply, for many industrial processes this is fundamental to ensure success and efficiency.
Oil Spill Disaster in Nigeria
Two thirds of the earth is water and one third is land or soil. Oil spills affect both. Spills on land obviously impact on the soil around the site and may impact on ground water and surface waters, like rivers and lakes. Likewise, spills at sea, such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, may contaminate soil and water miles away from the sites. On December 24, 2011, many Nigerian newspapers reported the oil spillage at Bonga, an oil creek in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. It was not long after this was reported that another report came regarding an oil spill in a nearby creek. The spill which the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) said happened during a routine export operation to transfer crude oil from Bonga’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), has lead to the complete shutdown of the company’s 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) Bonga facility, about 120 kilometers off the coast of the west African nation. The loss accounted for about 35,000 barrels of crude oil on the Niger-Delta marine body, which is about 1.1 million litres of crude oil spilled into the environment. The latest spill, considered to be one of the worst in ten years, came four months after a major United Nations study said it could take Shell and other oil companies 30 years and about $1 billion to clean up. Photo courtesy of Mazen Saggar / UNEP © In August last year, Shell admitted responsibility for two major spills in the Bodo region of the Delta that took place in 2008, but has yet to pay compensation. Satellite images of the spill area indicated that it covered more than 923 square kilometers. Over the years, cases of oil spillage in the Delta region have not been treated with the urgency they demanded, as oil companies, particularly the multinationals, continued their activities without much scrutiny by the authorities. The serious environmental damage caused by frequent oil spills and their impact on human and marine lives made living in the Delta region a harrowing experience. Besides the health hazards to human lives, farmlands are often destroyed and left unsuitable for vegetation. This is why the recent spillage should be taken very seriously by government. The activities of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) are unclear here, because so far there is nothing to indicate it is living up to its mandate. Meanwhile, damage caused by oil companies in the course of their activities in Nigeria and other developing countries appears to get little notice by the international community, compared to similar situations in other parts of the world. For instance, when a similar incident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico from a damaged BP oil rig in the United States last year, it attracted global attention, forcing prompt action by the company in the cleanup exercise that followed, as well as payment of compensation to fishermen. There is the added fear that the cleanup exercise at the Bonga fields would not be judiciously carried out because of longstanding corruption that has developed in the oil industry over the years. Coming on the heels of the agitation for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill that is pending before the National Assembly, the current spillage should be an eye opener for the government to take stringent measures to curtail further occurrences. On January 16, 2012, there was a fire on the Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) oil well located at its Funiwa gas field offshore Bayelsa State in Nigeria. At the time of going to press, this fire was still burning. The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had noted that the reason for not putting out the fire since is because Funiwa field is still leaking raw gas and until the point of leakage is found and plugged, the fire wouldn’t be stopped for health and environmental reasons. According to Reuters data, Bonga accounts for ten percent of monthly oil flows from OPEC member Nigeria, the continent’s largest exporter of crude oil. For the scientists, our interest is not the economic (oil revenue generation) implications, but the adverse effect the oil has on the water-soil-atmosphere continuum - our environment. Before spelling out the soil scientific methodologies in testing for the said adverse effects, let’s succinctly look at the environmental issues generally in the Niger - Delta of Nigeria as they relate to the petroleum industry.
