A database of archived drilling records of the drill cuttings piles at the North West Hutton oil platform.
Drill cuttings piles are found underneath several hundred oil platforms in the North Sea, and are contaminated with hydrocarbons and chemical products. This study characterised the environmental risk posed by the cuttings pile at the North West Hutton (NWH) oil platform. Data on the drilling fluids and chemical products used over the platform's drilling history were transferred from archived well reports into a custom database, to which were added toxicological and safety data. Although the database contained many gaps, it established that only seven chemical products used at NWH were not in the lowest category of the Offshore Chemicals Notification Scheme, and were used in only small quantities. The study therefore supports the view that the main environmental risk posed by cuttings piles comes from hydrocarbon contamination. The (dated) well records could help future core sampling to be targeted at specific locations in the cuttings piles. Data from many platforms could also be pooled to determine generic 'discharge profiles.' Future study would benefit from the existence, in the public domain, of a standardised, 'legacy' database of chemical products.
Marsh
Roy
R
School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. roy.marsh@uea.ac.uk
D016208:Databases, Factual; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history*; D007221:Industry / Q000266:history; D009659:North Sea; D010578:Petroleum; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012449:Safety; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history*
D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010578:Petroleum; D014873:Water Pollutants