Environmental Sustainability of Oil Industry

Abstract

Similarly to most industrial activities, the oil industry can affect the environment at several stages. The greatest impact is the release of waste into the environment in concentrations that are not natural. Virtually in all cases, the adverse impact can be minimized or eliminated through the implementation of a proper waste management plan. Over the past few years the oil industry has placed greater emphasis on minimizing the environmental impact of its operations in all the main phases of a hydrocarbon reservoir life: from appraisal to field development, from production and recovery to reservoir decommissioning. As a consequence, the oil industry is facing important technical challenges, approaching with great interest and expectation new emerging technologies, such as nanotechnologies and alternative solutions, like CO 2 underground storage. This study provides an overview of the most interesting solutions that have been proposed and critically highlights their potential benefits and drawbacks. The following paper focuses on some of the new approaches that have already changed the routine operation workflow, while others are currently being tested and may yet require further improvement.

A Coupled Fluid Flow—Geomechanical Approach for Subsidence Numerical Simulation

“…In that work the investigated formations were silty to fine-grained sandstones, which are similar to the lithologies investigated in this case study. Equation (1) holds true for rock compression in virgin loading conditions, thus was adopted for the calculation of the static elastic modulus E I as a function of depth during primary production. Furthermore, coherently with laboratory test results and with the technical literature [24,25], the elastic modulus E II was triplicated during the simulation of the field re-pressurization phases.…”

“…Massive prospection activities and natural gas production has been seen offshore the North Adriatic Sea since the 1960s. Because of the high urbanization rate of the North Adriatic coast, particular attention has been paid to predicting long-term induced subsidence, as good practice of a sustainable oil industry approach [1,2]. To this end, numerous fluid-flow and geomechanical numerical models have been set up and eventually calibrated to analyze the phenomena both at single reservoir scale as well as at global regional scale [3][4][5][6].…”

Pressure Detrending in Harmonic Pulse Test Interpretation: When, Why and How

“…Conventional well tests have been used by reservoir engineers to evaluate well and reservoir performance for decades [1][2][3][4][5]. Over the last several years, research has focused on developing complementary well test methodologies that are both less expensive and more environmentally friendly procedures [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. These well test methodologies were designed to provide essential information (i.e., kh and skin) when standard well testing procedure cannot be applied.…”

The Virtuous CO2 Circle or the Three Cs: Capture, Cache, and Convert

“…performance analysis, preferably based on a fully integrated geological, fluid-dynamic, and geomechanical approach, and eventually an adequate monitoring program to satisfy domestic technical and safety regulations together with social and environmental concerns [64,65]. Injecting gas into an aquifer substantially calls for the same procedure except that the initial formation pressure needs to be exceeded to displace water and accommodate gas.…”