Environmental Sustainability Measures in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

A major concern with the oil industry is that, like most industrial activities, it can have an adverse impact on the sustainability of the environment. The greatest concern as far as the impact is the release of waste into the environment at increased concentrations, which could result in higher pollution levels and accelerate the rate at which climate change occurs. The adverse environmental impact can be minimized or eliminated in almost all cases by implementing technologies that can reduce these effects. Consequently, the oil and gas industry has placed greater emphasis in recent years on minimizing the environmental impact of its operations upstream, midstream, and downstream. The purpose of this chapter is to provide background on the oil and gas industry and why environmental sustainability is so important. Various solutions have been proposed, and challenges associated with implementing them have been identified, as well as new research directions that are being tested and may require further improvement.