ADNOC Environmental Impact Severity Matrix, an Innovative Impact Rating Matrix

Abstract

Abstract ADNOC Environmental Impact Severity Matrix (EISM) is designed to rate the severity of environmental impacts whether from routine or accidental aspects. It takes into consideration the various contributing parameters after grouping them into 2 main axes, Duration of Impact and Impact Effect, to make the subject matrix. Introduction Oil and gas industry have taken care of safety long before the introduction of environment and occupational health into its culture. When Health, Safety and Environment were integrated into HSE, many oil and gas companies failed to realize the essential difference between Environment and Safety. Safety deals mainly with acute hazards such as fires and explosions. Safety hazards are unplanned and they are not supposed to be part of normal operations. Environmental Aspects can be accidental and very similar to the safety hazards as in the case of an oil spill, but they can also be profoundly different. Environmental Aspects can be a normal part of operation as in the case of exhaust emissions and consumption of raw material. This requires a very different method for identifying, evaluating, and managing those impacts. This impact rating method is part of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's Health, Safety, and Environment Code of Practice (ADNOC HSE COP)1, which are considered the HSE regulations for the Oil & Gas industry in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Code of Practice requires submission of EIA reports during the project design, operations and decommissioning. From environmental engineers to instrument engineers, and from operators to asset managers; its simplicity allows involvement of a broad range of non-specialist stakeholders, promoting environment as a core value, which in terms reduces future liabilities. Description There are many parameters that contribute to the magnitude of an environmental impact including the sensitivity and the resilience of the impacted resources, the value of the impacted resources to the ecosystem and the community, the level of damage, exposure of people, breach of regulation, duration of the event causing the impact, and the time it takes the environment to heal. Those parameters can be summed in two sets for sake of simplicity; impact effect and impact duration. Impact Effect It is basically the magnitude of change to the environment caused by the environmental aspect, without taking into consideration its duration or persistence. It accounts for the value of the subject environmental resource, the magnitude of the impact, human exposure…, etc. Table 1 - Impact Effect Comparison Guide, describes those effects on various medias and different scales. This table was designed for the ADNOC group taking into consideration the nature of its operations and the environment and community in the United Arab Emirates. It is provided as a comparative guidance only; not intended to cover every possibility. It can assist the environmental impact evaluation and rating to be more objective and consistent. Expert judgment may still be needed in a few cases. Its simplicity allows involvement of a broad range of non-specialist stakeholders, promoting environment as a core value, which in terms reduces future liabilities.