Hazardous Effects in Oceanic Water Caused by Offshore Rigs Related to Petrochemicals Volume 2 - Issue 5

Rajib Biswas*

• Department of Physics, Tezpur University, India

Received:September 10, 2019;   Published:September 13, 2019

Corresponding author:Rajib Biswas, Department of Physics, Tezpur University, India

DOI: 10.32474/MAOPS.2019.02.000150

Abstract PDF

Spillage as well as waste materials of offshore rigs related to petrochemical industries is gradually increasing which is jeopardizing the marine ecology system either directly or indirectly. This brief communication highlights the hazardous effects caused by spillage as well as waste materials from these rigs. Further, the corrosion from these rigs is also pointed out. Apart from this, plausible measures to curb down these ill effects are appraised along with recommendations.

There are around more than 500 rigs which are basically offshore as per statistics are concerned. In a recent survey, it is shown that no. of rigs in 2010 were nearing 400. However, within eight years of span, it has escalated to 500 which show the huge demand of oil and natural gas products. This is expected to increase more as rising consumers as well as dependent industries will come into effect near future. Maintenance of these oil and natural gas rigs is a major concern. There is always wear and tear of these machineries/tools with passage of time [1-4]. Some of them turn out to be replenish-able while major chunk of them are irrecoverable/ irreparable. This produces lot of sludge material which is eventually dumped into ocean. Alongside of it, there is a recurrent problem of spoilage which directly goes to the marine ocean. These frequent oil spillages, waste products from the offshore rigs in the long-term mix with oceanic water. Needless to mention that major chunk of these waste products are non-biodegradable which cause a heavy impact on the marine bio diversity [2-6]. Above all, the petrochemical wastes possess complex chain structure which requires a long span of time to decompose/ dissociation. Till then, they bio-accumulate which cause the maximum damage to the oceanic ecosystem.

Consequently, the long-term ill effect can become predominant in the relevant constitutional bodies of the marine ecological system. In order to curb down the pollution caused by the offshore rigs of oil and natural gas, there must be adherence to strict protocols which should be abided by all leading stake holders. Strict real time monitoring of waste disposal & spillage should be there to keep track of the ongoing drilling. The old-age installations should be replenished with state-of-art technologies irrespective of the expenditure involved. Similarly, administering a benchmark or norm to discharge must be brought into effect alongside of it; followed by punitive measures for violators. Again, there is use of several heavy metals in these rigs. The heavy machineries as well as their allied accessories contain these metals. Along with it, the eroding procedures/mechanisms of these machineries over long span of time are also a major concern for the ecology of oceanography. With the advent of newer technologies [5-12], there is lot of development in such cases. However, the erosion is far from total eradication. To circumvent this, there should be effective monitoring systems for erosion as well as heavy metal concentration in oceanic water. Once these are executed with efficacy, the concerned companies can adopt remediation approaches.

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