OIL PIPELINE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Oil Pipeline Environmental Impact

Abstract

Man has caused disasters on ecosystems by killing large numbers of species all kinds. Among the most serious disasters that threaten biodiversity are the oil spills in the seas and oceans. Crude oil contamination or refined oil (diesel, gasoline, kerosene and other products obtained by distillation fractional and chemical processing of crude oil) is generated by accidental or deliberately from different sources. Oil pollution comes from Tanker accidents and leaks in offshore drilling equipment. Source pollution comes from land, which is thrown to the ground in cities and industrial zones, which are then carried by river currents until it ends in the oceans. Million tons per year are transported across the seas. Unfortunately, Accidents often occur at sea and oil spill in the loading and discharge ports. In addition, due to bad practices, the tankers used as ballast and sea water contaminated with oil return. Other ship tanks pump waste oil at sea as waste. Way sea oil pollution comes from the drilling of oil and gas coastal waters and underwater pipeline leaks.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Water Pollution4

Oil Pollution4

Radioactive Substances5

Oil characteristics5

Cleaning Oil Spills6

Environmental Sensitivity to Oil Spills6

Environmental Impacts of Oil Pipelines6

Impacts on Terrestrial ecosystem7

Direct consequences of oil spills on wildlife7

Different Pipelines8

Detection of Leaks8

Monitoring and Remediation9

Socioeconomic and Political aspects9

Introduction

Oil spills are the release of petroleum into the sea or inland areas and are a major threat mainly to coastal environments. In the past century, there was a notable increase in world population, in general, and in the coastal population in particular. Hence, coastal areas' vulnerability to oil spills has increased, often to the level of potential natural and human catastrophes. Oil is mainly exported by maritime traffic from oil-exporting areas, such as the Persian Gulf, Libya and Algeria, Nigeria, and Sudan in Africa to the major oil-importing countries, namely, the United States, Western Europe, Japan, India, and China. In the 1990, some 3.4 million tons of oil, or 0.01% of the world's total annual oil production—about 3.6 billion tons/year, went into the sea. Approximately, 47% of this volume was from oil spills from ships, the rest from industrial plants, sea oil drillings, and natural sources. Generally, major oil spills are caused by shipping accidents at sea, fires on tankers, or ship accidents on coastal barriers. The total risk, or the expected number of injuries and lives lost and amount of property damaged, is a function of the magnitude of the hazard—oil spill in this case; the number of potential economic and environmental assets to be affected, such as beaches, ports, nature reserves, and so on; and the vulnerability of the affected area (Bradley, 1982).

Water Pollution

Water pollution occurs when harmful materials are introduced into the lakes, rivers, oceans, and groundwater. These harmful materials are referred to as pollutants. There are a variety of pollutants ranging from biological (e.g., bacteria and viruses) to chemical (e.g., metals, solvents, pesticides, and floating detergents and oils) forms, and from nutrients (e.g., phosphorus and nitrogen) to suspended ...