Assessment of Environmental Risks at Oil and Gas Production Companies Using an Integrated Method

Abstract

The assessment of environmental risks at oil and gas production facilities is one of the most important and relevant areas. Essentially, the results of the current assessment procedure are in most cases divorced from the real situation that is taking shape in the territory of mining operations. The main issue is the lack of a methodology that would combine an assessment of each component of the environment. The aim of this work is to justify and develop an integrated methodology for assessing environmental risks. For this, we considered the main types of environmental impacts of oil and gas production companies, and from existing methods for assessing environmental risks we selected those able to take into account the largest range of impacts. Using the resulting set of methods for assessing environmental risks, we conducted a study of the environmental condition at the oil and gas fields in the Lena-Tunguska oil and gas province, namely, the Yarakta, Iktekh, and Markovo fields. As a result, the environmental risk identified at these facilities corresponded to the “medium” level. As result, at these facilities during the risk management procedure it is necessary to implement additional measures aimed at minimizing the negative impact on the environment.