Oil And Gas Production And The Effect On The Environment

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

Majority nations have joined hands to discuss possibilities and ways that environmental conservation and protection can be realized. They have continued to give this matter an upfront consideration owing to its importance and sensitivity. The United Nations, through the United Nations Environmental Program UNEP, guides the developing nations undertaking development projects that have been identified to be a threat to the quality of the environment (Desai, 2012). It is clear that environment is life and without it, there will be no life. The UNEP, a branch of United Nations is obligated to carry out and executing functions that help to conserve the environment in the developing nations.

One of the biggest political and legal issues that affect the oil and gas industry is the cause of changing of present climates as there are a lot of harmful petroleum products that can cause damage to the environment such as carbon dioxide cause greenhouse gas, sulfur dioxide cause acid rain which could eventually be harmful to animal, planet and worsen illness and heart diseases… Another issue

Introduction: In the kind of world we live in today, we are in dire need of oil. Our cars need oil, our buses need it, our planes and machines. Oil and gas production are very important in order for the many tasks we do day to day and we have become dependent on it. Fracking is a process that uses high pressure water and other chemicals to gather oil under the ground. Although fracking is a fantastic way to gather oil, there have been several problems that have been occurring. In Texas many jobs and drilling locations are appearing because of the high demand for oil. Fracking is a very good way to gather natural gas however, it is causing a lot of problems for society and the environment in Texas.

A relatively new process for extracting desired shale oil from the bowels of the earth seems to be shaking things up around operation sites. Environmentalists and oil tycoons have been debating for years over the safety of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, since areas with a high concentration of fracking operations have been affected by several environmental problems. Though many scientists argue that correlation does not necessarily mean causation, the media and many environmentalists use these environmental problems around fracking sites as proof of the long term damage fracking causes. Although it has domesticated the oil industry and reduced usage of coal as a fuel source, fracking is undoubtedly related to many detrimental environmental impacts, such as water table pollution and increased seismic activity.

The nation is shifting towards electricity generated by natural gas- over the past ten years 81 percent of new electricity capacity has been gas fired- and state governments are playing regulatory catch-up with the drilling technology’s rapid expansion to meet this burgeoning demand”. (http://www.gracelinks.org/191/natural-gas-fracking-introduction) However; to meet this demand, gas and oil companies have ignored some rather important harmful effects of hydraulic fracturing. These harmful effects include; water droughts, increased pollution, the spread of toxins, and possible negative influence on local economies. Water droughts because of the fracking process are caused by using up to approximately one-hundred times more water than previous drilling methods. This means that gradually less and less of the world where drilling is active or was active will have the ability to attain non chemical induced water. The article, “List of Pros and Cons of Fracking” published by Occupy Theory states that, “Anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of fracking waste water flows back to the original drilling surface” (http://occupytheory.org/list-of-pros-and-cons-of-fracking/) Hydraulic fracturing causes pollution in several different aspects. Oil and gas companies are not required to provide a list of chemicals used in the process which causes those in the areas where drilling is present to not be able to adapt correctly to these toxins. According to research, a few of the chemicals that have been found present in fracking include; benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene. These three chemicals are known to the scientific community to cause harmful effects on the health of people. Also, the article, “Pros and Cons of Fracking: 5 Key Issues” explains that because of the dropping gas prices, drilling use will

Repercussions of burning oil have arisen more progressively. The debatable topic of global warming holds burning fossil fuels responsible for higher temperatures in colder climates. An article by World Book explains why oil is so harmful towards the environment. As more cars are produced more pollutants are released into the atmosphere, those pollutants cause smog in larger manufacturing oriented cities as well as, acid rain. Factories, burning oil, dispose of the remaining chemicals into bodies of water rendering them unsafe to drink for both humans and animals alike (Hunt par. 1). Another article produced through World Book describes the

Around our country there has been a big debate going on about a certain process used to help harvest natural gas. This process has brought about many view points and people arguing for the good and bad of it. This paper will examine views from both sides, its effects on the environment, review journal entries, and then show the conclusion reached about this process. The process you might have guessed that I am referring to is that of hydraulic fracturing or otherwise known as fracking by most people.

Although oil companies uphold the idea that fracking is a cheaper and efficient, fracking damages the local water, air and soil in the surrounding cities. According to the Science of Total Environment, scientists speculate that wells require up to 5 million gallons of fluid per extraction event, which would require tons of chemicals including benzene, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides to unconventionally bring out the shale gas (Werner et al. 2014). The lengthy list of air pollutants, most of which are combustible, suggests that both human health and the environment are at risk and the surrounding water aquifers located near the horizontal wells could also be damaged. The amount of water needed for extraction also demonstrates the strain the process of fracking has on the environment and local water supply. Similarly, the potency of methane is 20 times worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, which is further aggravated by the process of flaring (Weinhold 2012). Thus, flaring and fracking serves not only as a nuisance to the community through the health hazards and water pollution, but can worsen the status of global climate

As there started, the massive expansion of gas drilling, the potential troubling discoveries associated with its byproducts are increasingly alarming. For instance, the wastewater created by the process is radioactive. Claiming that the information is proprietary, drilling companies have still not come out fully transparent in disclosing what exactly are fracking fluids made of and still a lot of ambiguity in its compositions and their detrimental effects, remain. But the most vital of all controversies that remains is, fracking is simply distracting energy firms and governments from investing in renewable sources of energy, and encouraging continued reliance on fossil fuels. Thus, there remains a long list of heated controversies and discussions around fracking and its sustainability

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

Engineering and surveying, construction, hospitality, construction, equipment manufacturing as well as environmental permitting are only a percentage of the professions encountering the positive gradually expanding influences of expanding oil in addition to natural gas shale improvement. Gallegos & Varela asserts that “a few critiques of oil and natural gas generation assert that Hydraulic Fracturing has critical environmental results. The fact of the matter is, while all advancement has challenges, Hydraulic Fracturing innovation has numerous environmental benefits and it is utilized under close supervision by state and government authorities” (26). Studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ground Water Protection Council have affirmed that there is no immediate connection between Hydraulic Fracturing activities and groundwater contamination.

Oil Drilling has many effects on the environment from the air we breathe to the oceans that inhabit many species. While one of the outcomes of oil drilling is money, it is forgotten that money won’t help repair all of the damage that is done to mother nature. Not only does the outcome of drilling for fossil fuels affect the oceans, rainforest, etc. it also has an effect on local business’ and the health of humans. If people want change, they need to be the

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.

Biofuel has captured much of the attention of many countries around the world. To ensure future energy security and reduce global green house gas, several companies across the world are investing on biofuel production as a renewable alternative energy to co-exist with fossil fuel, which is now becoming scarce (Royal Society, 2008). BP is one of the significant producers of Biofuel, which is producing biofuel from sugarcane in Brazil. However, the expansion of biofuel production has raised the concern about the negative environmental and social consequences related to sustainability. It depends on how biofuel development is designed. Brazil has lot of positive experiences in biofuel production, yet debate is still continuing on negative impacts of ethanol production from sugarcane. Negative impact sometimes outweighs positive impacts (UN Energy, 2007). Land that are used for ethanol production cause loss of natural resources (Faaij and Dieperink, 2007) and affect food production in developing countries as land is used in different pattern for sugar cane production (Doornbosch, 2007). Number of sustainability standards as well as environmental and social policies has been developed over the years to minimize the risk of negative impact. For sustainable biofuel development, BP participates in different stakeholder activities such as Roundtable for Sustainable biofuel and better Sugarcane Initiative (Bonsuro). Effective management of stakeholders is critical to