Challenges And Importance Of Sustainable Waste Management In The Oil And Gas Industry

Background and Rational of Study

This chapter will discuss about the background and rational of the study. This will help to under the research problem. Aim and objectives are provided in this chapter.

British Petroleum is one of the largest gas and Oil Company in the world. Headquarter of British Petroleum is situated at London, UK. About 3.8 million barrels of oil is produced per day ( Selley and Sonnenberg 2014 ). There are approximately 22400 service stations of Bp in the world (Kiron 2017). It is the third largest company in energy production. It is the sixth major producer of oil and gas.

Waste management is recurrent challenge for the gas and oil industry (Sharma et al 2013). The recent development in the oil and gas industry has determined a basic change in the path of the industry. The speedy change has demand a uniformly swift development in the infrastructure required to gratify the ecological safety demands of gas and oil processes (Leissle 2018). Some challenges of waste management arise due to the production in the basins.

It is essential to recover the expensive fractions from all kinds of gas and oil. It reduces the ecological importance of fracturing and drilling. It helps to expose expensive innovative revenue streams. It surpasses the dictatorial standards for surroundings safety. It is important to recover the useful materials. The inoperative waste matters are arranged for waste management (Viney 2014). A diversity of waste-disposal alternatives is used. Some complicated techniques are used for waste management to provide a better solution for dealing with the full range of gas and oilfield waste.

The aim of the research is to find the key challenges that the oil and gas industry face to achieve sustainable waste management. It is also necessary to compare the important factors that affects waste management in developed oil areas with those in less developed , emerging oil areas. The ultimate aim of the research is to recommend new waste management system.

The objectives of the research are given as follows:

• To discover the challenge facing the oil industry in achieving sustainable management of all waste
• To identify the most important factors that affects waste management in emerging oil areas
• To recommend new waste management system

The research will be done to answer the questions.

• Which major challenges does the oil industry face to attain sustainable waste management?
• How to compare the affecting factors of waste management in developed oil areas with less developed oil areas?
• Which innovative waste management should be followed?

This chapter has discussed about some relevant topics. This chapter will help to under the research problems. It will also help to understand which topics have been researched in the past and the importance of this research.

Waste management is the method of indulgencing wastes and provides a range of solutions for recycling matters that do not belong to garbage. In this method, garbage is used as a precious resource. Products and substances are arranged in an efficient manner in waste management, so that they can be used (Schaltegger and Burritt 2017). There are eight main groups of waste management procedures. These groups can be divided into many categories. The following methods are commonly used for waste management. These methods are landfills, recovery and recycling, compositing, recover energy, plasma gasification etc.

British Petroleum: Overview

Waste management methods may vary for developing and developed countries. Waste management may differ for rural and urban populations.  The management of waste in rural and metropolitan area is usually responsibility of the local government. Non-hazardous wastes are managed.

Landfill: It is most ordinary way for the removal of garbage around the world. These landfills are frequently conformist with deserted and vacant locations around the cities. This process is reasonable and quite disinfected method for removal of waste (Bosmans, Vanderreydt and Geysen 2013). Nevertheless, inefficiently designed landfills can charge a huge amount to the government in terms of ecological and healthiness issues. It is also responsible for making of gas that is tremendously perilous. This gas can be a reason for assassination exterior undergrowth and green house effects. The deposited garbage is mainly compressed for rising the density and stability.

Burning: This method is used to renovate waste resources into gas, ash, heat and steam. It is an ordinary method due to shortage of lands. The burning procedure in incineration is never ideal for the clearance of waste. Particular apprehensions have been determined over some unrelenting organics (Rhyner et al. 2017).  These organic products are causations for grave penalty distressing environment.

Methods for recycling: The materials such as LDEP, PP, and PVC are biodegradable and are easier to work with. Nevertheless, complex products are difficult for recycling.

Biological reprocessing: Biological reprocessing is used for the waste materials that are organic in nature. This method is used for agricultural purposes. The collected waste gas from the process is used for the production of electricity.

Recovery of energy: Garbage is unswervingly combusted for the production of energy as fuel. Direct ignition can also be taken for generation of energy (Arena and Gregorio 2014). Thermal treatment for recycling purpose included burning of waste for the generation of energy used for household purpose.

Methods of avoidance and reduction: It is another method of waste management. It utilizes the used product and it repairs the products that have been broken in place of buying new things. Products are designed for replenishing and using again.

There are numerous concepts for the ravage management all over the world. Some concepts have been discussed below.

Waste hierarchy: This concept is sometimes called “3Rs”. These three R depends for “Reduce”, “Reuse” and “Recycle”. This method is generally used for more waste reduction plans. Waste management comprises every characteristic of the procedure to control from the make to the eventual dumping (Eriksson 2015). Collection of the waste material, transport, sorting and disposal of waste are included in this process. The conception of desecrate management is considered to decrease the effects of misuse management. “3 Rs” waste management is proposed to categorize dissipate managing into three major factors comparative to appropriateness in terms of lessening of misuse. The amount of packaging should be reduced because it has immense influence on ecological damage. Reusing of products can help to save resources and money. The advantages of recycling are diverse. In this process, the material can be reused.

Waste Management Challenges in the Industry

Extended producer reliability: Comprehensive producer responsibility is an approach considered to endorse the combination of ecological expenditures linked with commodities during the life cycles into the souk value of goods (Massarutto 2014). The main aim of this scheme is to amplify the quantity and amount of revival of merchandise. It also try to diminish the ecological influence of devastate materials. This strategy was introduced in Sweden for the first time.

Polluter Pays Principle: This principle is introduced to force to pay the party accountable for making pollution for the damage made to the surroundings. It is observed as a provincial practice due to the well-built support it has inward in most European Union nations and “Organization for Economic co-operation and Development (OECD)”. It applies environmental policy such as an ecotax (Sadeleer 2014). It helps to lessen the emissions of green house gas. This principle states that the industry or individual who is responsible for unavoidable pollution should pay currency for remedy of the contaminated environment.

Natural gas has an important role for the energy in future of a nation. Natural gas has been vastly reserved in the United Nations. These gases are commercially feasible because of progress in parallel drilling and hydraulic fissuring equipments facilitating superior access to gas in shale structures. Gas and oil exploration and production classically include the following three steps (Gross, Avens and Banducci 2013). These steps are drilling and completion step, stimulation step and production stage. In the initial step, the following wastes like drilling mud, water, cutting etc. are produced. Fracturing fluid returns in the stage of stimulation. Water is produced as waste at hydraulic fracturing stage. In the ultimate stage, water is produced as waste. Fluids contain the chemical additives during the hydraulic fracturing. Sand is derived under elevated force to create and grip unfasten fissure within the geologic formation.

It is seen that the use of hydraulic fracturing has been increased in numerous states. These sates have been updating and developing regulations for needs associated to waste management. It is believed that management of E&P wastes should happen in a approach that avoids discharges of perilous elements to the surroundings. The waste-related necessities of state rules had been reviewed for storage tanks for 26 of 33 gas-producing states and waste pits of oil and natural gas (Rahm et al. 2013). Several states had rationalized regulations to comprise revelation needs for the chemicals used in the custom of hydraulic fracturing. It was seen that some areas such as post closing monitoring, ground water monitoring etc. did not emerge to have explicit needs.

The Importance of Recovering Useful Materials

Burial: The wastes such as mud, produced water, cuttings can be diposed through a diversity of techniques. These wastes can harm the ability of the land to support vegetation as these wastes contain high proportion of salts. Pits are needed to be lined before waste is deserted into them. Burial mainly occurs at landfill. It is necessary to check for a permit to oilfield wastes and other substances before the dispose of gas and oil wastes.

Treatment: Land framing is the frequent and controlled application of wastes to the soil surface. A technique should be introduced for plummeting the concentration of hydrocarbon-rich, oily wastes before disposing them. It is also essential to control the moisture. It helps to minimize dust in the dry conditions. A wide range of tillage and compositing techniques helps to recover the ecosystem.

Thermal Technologies: Two types of thermal technologies are used. These are thermal desorption and incineration. Thermal desorption happens in indirect rotary kilns where incineration happens in direct rotary kilns.

Slurry Injection: Slurry is created by grounding solid waste into small particles and mixing with liquid. The waste slurry is injected subversive into shock arrangements through annular inoculation.

Ecological concerns are classically the base for regulation. Many larger E & P operators maintain standards above those required under regulations. There is frequently inadequate misunderstanding from authoritarian bodies to guarantee the fulfilment of the numerous contributors in the lane industry.

Numerous researches had been done on waste management.  It is hypothesised that no research had been done to answer the above-mentioned research questions. Hence, it is important to conduct the research to get the answer of these research questions.

This chapter will discuss briefly about the method of data collection, target population, sampling techniques. Expected outcome, gannt chart will be provided in this chapter.

It is very important to collect data for a research. Data can be classified into two broad categories i.e primary data and secondary data. Primary data will be collected  to conduct the research. Total 3 people including an engineer superintendent, a maintenance superintendent and an operations manager from British Petroleum will be interviewed( Goodenough and Waite 2012). There are several reasons for collecting primary data. Collected data through interview process will provide data that are more accurate. It is more efficient data collection method. The quality of the data will depend on the ability of the interviewer. There are few reasons for not choosing secondary data for this research. Secondary data is taken from other source. It has been already used to execute another research. Secondary data can supply an enormous quantity of information, but the data may not be trustworthy. It is a subjective research. Hence, it is better to depend on primary data.

Methods of Waste Management

There are two types of research methods i.e. qualitative method and quantitative method. Case study will be used to produce an in detail, versatile understanding of a composite issue in the real-life circumstance. Qualitative research method will be adopted to conduct the research. It is mainly exploratory research (Bryman and Bell 2015). It will be used to gain an understanding of the problems (Flick 2013). This method will help to extend the ideas or proposition for the probable quantitative research (Costley, Elliott and Gibbs 2010). It is also used to expose tendency in consideration, opinions, and leap deeper in to the problem (Flick 2014). The sample size will be small for the research. Descriptive analysis will be done for this research. This type of analytics is done to analyze the data coming in existent time and chronological data for close on how to approach the future (Helyer 2015). The major objective of this type of analysis is to identify the reasons behind the failure and success in the past. Predictive analysis will also be done to elaborate what will happen in future (McNiff 2013). Case studies can be expletory, explanatory or may describe an event. Purposive sampling will be done. There will be so advantages for using qualitative research for this research. It will provide an in-depth examination of the phenomena. Subjective information will be used for this type research. It will also provide the answer of difficult questions that cannot be provided by quantitative research. It will covenant with the questions that are value-laden. It will discover new vicinity of research. The results are limited in quantitative research because numerical descriptions are provided in quantitative research. Hence qualitative research method will be used.

There will be some limitations of research. It is limited by the integrity and sensitivity of the investigator. Training in observation and interviewing is not readily available to the case study researcher. Ethical issues are the limitation of the research. The further limitations are issue of validity, reliability etc. Biasness may be arisen in the study.

The research will be conducted to achieve the research objectives. It is expected that innovative waste management techniques should be adopted at British Petroleum. The some challenges they may face to achieve the sustainable waste management. They may work with SOCAR to find better solution. They will have different options for waste disposal. It is expected that thermo mechanical cutting cleaner technology will be introduced. It is expected that hazardous fluids can contaminate waste streams. It is required to be careful during handling radioactivity. Tank bottom sludge may be included by the generated wastes at terminals.

References List

Arena, U. and Di Gregorio, F., 2014. A waste management planning based on substance flow analysis. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 85, pp.54-66.

Bosmans, A., Vanderreydt, I., Geysen, D. and Helsen, L., 2013. The crucial role of Waste-to-Energy technologies in enhanced landfill mining: a technology review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 55, pp.10-23.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.Costley, Costley, C., Elliott, G.C. and Gibbs, P., 2010. Doing work based research: Approaches to enquiry for insider-researchers. Sage.

De Sadeleer, N., 2014. Polluter pays principle. Essential concepts of global environmental governance, pp.155-156.

Eriksson, M., Strid, I. and Hansson, P.A., 2015. Carbon footprint of food waste management options in the waste hierarchy–a Swedish case study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 93, pp.115-125.

Flick, U. ed., 2013. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis. Sage..

Flick, U., 2014. An introduction to qualitative research. Sage.

Goodenough, A. and Waite, S., 2012. Real world research: a resource for users of social research methods in applied settings.

Gross, S.A., Avens, H.J., Banducci, A.M., Sahmel, J., Panko, J.M. and Tvermoes, B.E., 2013. Analysis of BTEX groundwater concentrations from surface spills associated with hydraulic fracturing operations. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 63(4), pp.424-432.

Helyer, R., 2015. Facilitating Work-Based Learning: A Handbook for Tutors. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kiron, M.M., 2017. A Complete Strategic Business Analysis of British Petroleum (BP).

Leissle, K., 2018. Cocoa. John Wiley & Sons.

Massarutto, A., 2014. The long and winding road to resource efficiency–An interdisciplinary perspective on extended producer responsibility. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 85, pp.11-21.

McNiff, J., 2013. Action research: Principles and practice. Routledge.

Rahm, B.G., Bates, J.T., Bertoia, L.R., Galford, A.E., Yoxtheimer, D.A. and Riha, S.J., 2013. Wastewater management and Marcellus Shale gas development: Trends, drivers, and planning implications. Journal of environmental management, 120, pp.105-113.

Rhyner, C.R., Schwartz, L.J., Wenger, R.B. and Kohrell, M.G., 2017. Waste management and resource recovery. CRC Press.

Schaltegger, S. and Burritt, R., 2017. Contemporary environmental accounting: issues, concepts and practice. Routledge.

Selley, R.C. and Sonnenberg, S.A., 2014. Elements of petroleum geology. Academic Press.

Sharma, B., Ingalls, R.G., Jones, C.L. and Khanchi, A., 2013. Biomass supply chain design and analysis: basis, overview, modeling, challenges, and future. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 24, pp.608-627.

Viney, W., 2014. Waste: A philosophy of things. A&C Black.

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