Human Health Risks And Socio Economic Problems Associated With Petroleum Exploration And Production Activities Essay

Many seafood companies prices fluctuate because a whole number of reasons. Have you ever thought why though? They even have to take some foods completely off their menus. A lot of the time this is because of an oil spill that kills so much of the environment that a lot of the sea animals die or even become endangered. The BP Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 is a great example of this. It spilled 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 87 days. The area of the spill alone had over 8,000 species, which already had 39 endangered species and added 14 new species to the endangered list. Not only did we lose animals but “Eleven people died as a result of the accident and 17 others were injured”(BP Staff).

I am originally from a small rural community in Ohio, which has poor regulation of the air and water quality which humans depend on to sustain life.

Within the past few decades, the use of coal and oil are slowly starting to be phased out in major developed countries and the era of hydraulic fracking is starting to pave way.

One way that drilling for oil destroys animals homes is that fossil fuels create carbon dioxide, and then that burned carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere and then Global Warming is starting to melt the ice caps that animals live on. Also, drilling the new wells that we have to drill to get the oil, that makes the amount of land for the animals to make homes go down, and when the land amount goes down so does the length of the animals, like the polar bear, go down. The average length of the polar bears mating season is about from the months March until May. Where they want to reproduce is normally around where seals like to be. But then When Global Warming gets more and more threatening, they have nowhere to go now. Males tend to be very aggressive during the mating period, so that kills off the population even more. When the female gets pregnant, she gains at least 44o pounds because once the ice breaks, she won't be able to hunt for food. Another reason is that if we happen to have an oil spill, that will devastate all the animals in the Arctic. For example, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was created because when the BP operated rig “Macondo Prospect” exploded. The area in the Gulf that was affected by the spill was eight thousand five hundred miles, to nine thousand, four hundred and twenty one miles in 2010. But, the use of technology has really helped the oil and gas industry because it has stopped useless drilling. An example of this would be the

Keeping in view the enormous benefits obtained from these techniques, there are innumerable hazards as well which are effecting the human life such as fracking is putting negative impacts. The legal examination of the fracking began in 1980 and was considered as a threat to the environment of the planet and still it is a hot topic among the

Environmental impact and/or attribution of environmental contamination caused by petroleum and gas exploration, production, and storage activities:

The oil industry, though it harnesses over hundreds of billions of dollars’ revenue worldwide, it provides many consequences to ecosystems. They have the potential to kill marine mammals and birds by Direct Toxicty, and weakens the organism’s immune systems. Offshore drilling affects the geological structure of the oceans as the process of it includes drilling into the sedimentary rocks and into the oil reserves. The Exxon Valdez spill is an example of oil contamination that has killed an estimate of 250,00 sea birds, 3000 sea otters, 3000 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, more than 70 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs.

The mining crude oil and the associated processes have led to negative impacts on the environment by:

The Federal Surface Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (FSCRA) attempted to shift some of the responsibility for environmental consequences to the private contractors who rely on mining for privatized profit (Menzel 1981 et al. Chan 2017). Notably, the FSCRA did not attempt to mitigate environmental degradation derived from oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Whereas, oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing tend to fall underlies stringent regulations, but NEPA still applies to these processes. The consequences of oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing “include deforestation, ecosystem destruction, chemical contamination of land and water, long-term harm to animal populations (particularly migratory birds and marine mammals)” (O’Rourke 2003, 594). In addition, hydraulic fracturing require an extractive fluid which often entails the usage of chemicals that are “either carcinogenic or associated with numerous health problems affecting the eyes, skin, lungs, intestines, liver, brain, and nervous system” (Kargbo 2010, 5681). For example, in New York it has been confirmed that “formaldehyde, pesticides, acids, and numerous other hazardous materials” have been found in “hydrofracture fluids” (Kargbo 2010, 5681). The extraction of coal, oil, and natural gas degrades the environment and has the most detrimental impacts locally.

As polar ice in the Arctic region melts, there are many implications associated with it. The melting ice opens up sea lanes, providing access to priceless natural resources, such as the estimated 90 billion barrels of the world’s undiscovered oil (Karaim 336). For the United States, this is a great opportunity. Access to these energy reserves would open up expansion of the oil industry, which advocates of oil drilling say will lead to extensive economic development (Karaim 335) in northern Alaska and the rest of the Arctic region. However, scientists caution that an increase in oil drilling will have destructive effects on the environment. Increased greenhouse gas pollution from oil drilling facilitate global warming, which will melt even more polar ice, absorbing more sunlight and harming vivid Arctic ecosystems. The higher risk for oil spills will harm marine wildlife, which translates to harming the indigenous Arctic peoples. Their diets will be altered, new diseases will be introduced, and the changing of the Arctic land will restrict their rich cultural traditions and lifestyles. Although oil drilling will facilitate economic development in the Arctic, it should not be continued because its implementation is not sustainable for the environment, nor does it improve the lifestyles of the indigenous Arctic peoples.

The oil field in Scurry County, Texas is a part of the Horseshoe Atoll. It’s a part of the northern side of the Midland Basin, which is in the Central Basin Platform. Scurry County is on the east side of the Atoll. The Horseshoe Atoll is an accumulation of fossiliferous limestone. It was deposited in a shallow marine environment during the Permian and Pennsylvanian. The cap rock for the Atoll is a clay-sized formation. Oil was not produced in the reservoir rock. Due to decreasing porosity by increasing in depth, the oil was squeezed up to the rock it lays in now. The first well was done by Humble Oil and Refining Company on January 28th, 1947, but came up dry. The first oil-producing was by Sun Oil and Humble on July 16th, 1948. In 1948

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.

It is estimated that each year three to four million tons of petroleum end up in the sea4. Some major petroleum accidents over the years to speak of are Torry Canyon(1967) and the Amoco Cadiz(1978)5. These kinds of accidents, however, only account for around 25 percent of the marine pollution by hydrocarbons. Estimations show that 60 percent of the pollution comes from land based sources6. The remaining 15 percent is due to offshore oil drilling stations7. For all of the good uses of oil and petroleum, there are just as many reasons why they are bad. It is just that those reasons do not propose a direst threat to us. When something does not propose a direct threat to us, we usually do not worry.

207 million gallons. To any person, it is evident that this amount is quite large; however, the true impact of this amount is truly staggering. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sunk to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico unleashing 207 million gallons of crude oil into the gulf. From a company perspective, this is a staggering loss of capital ranging from the drilling rig itself to the clean up of the aftermath. The question remains, however, could this have been prevented? The oil and gas industry has been known to be a high risk, high profit industry. Many workers are placed in an isolated place under hazardous working conditions, but are compensated with a high salary and great benefit packages. These areas of compensation,

Oil spills have devastating detrimental effects, both towards humans and other animals, as well as the environment. For example, drinking water may be polluted and marine life killed, consequently lowering the quality of life in affected areas. As the quality of the environment is inextricably linked to the quality of life on Earth, it is essential to properly clean up incidents such as oil spills to protect the quality of the environment and therefore the quality of life.