Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/181

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Environmental Impact of the Oil Industry

15.5.2 DRILLING

Interfaces of drilling activities and the environment (from an SPDC handbook of 1993):


Drilling Activity Interface Potential Environmental Impact
(s=swamp;l=land)
Site preparation Disturbance (clearing, dredging) Loss off vegetation/arable land (s,l)

Change hydrology (s)
High turbidity in creeks (s)

  Soil (dredging, construction) Change sediment budget creeks (s)

Smothering benthos (s)
Dredge spoils (acidification) (s)
Blockages (s)
Community disturbances (s,l)

Transport Noise/ disturbance Banks/roads damaged

Mammal/birds repelled

  Water/soil (spillage) Community disturbances
Pollution
Drilling Waste/water (mud/cuttings) Smothering benthos, repelling fish (s)
Impact water quality (s)
  Waste/soil (mud/cuttings) Ground water pollution (l)
Impact vegetation (flooding pits) (l);
  Soil/water (spillage)
Noise
Repelling mammals/birds
Community disturbances
Testing Air pollution
Hindrance, noise
Greenhouse effect
Ambient air quality
Vegetation damage
  Soil (carry over) Repelling fauna
Soil pollution
Community disturbances

There are eight main specific impacts of drilling.

Drilling - Extent

In the SPDC Eastern Region alone, 1,279 wells had been drilled by 1992 (of which 526 became producing wells). Whilst the areas covered by drilling sites are insignificant the ecological footprint caused by the drilling activity covers a much wider area as the above table suggests.

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