Pollution prevention in offshore oil and gas operations: Opportunities and implementation

Rapid development of offshore oil and gas (OOG) production, increasing environmental awareness, and strict legislations support the need for pollution prevention (P2) in OOG operations. However, the implementation of P2 has been impeded due to (1) the lack of well-developed P2 technologies, and (2) the requirement of more re-development, training, and disruption in current operations compared to pollution control technologies. In this regard, this paper investigates the P2 opportunities in OOG operations. Future work is required for the development of reliable and cost effective technologies or practices with respect to these P2 opportunities. Moreover, the integration of P2 and environmental management system (EMS) is proposed for the effective and systematic implementation of P2 options.