title: A systematic quality assessment of Environmental Impact Statements in the oil and gas industry.
abstract: The global economy relies heavily on oil and gas resources. However, hydrocarbon exploitation projects can cause significant impacts on the environment. But despite the production of numerous Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) to identify/mitigate such impacts, no study has specifically assessed the quality of EISs for both onshore and offshore oil and gas projects, with tested hypotheses. To address this research gap, our paper, for the first time, develops a modified Lee and Colley evaluation model to assess the quality of 19 sampled oil and gas project EISs produced from 1998 to 2008 in Nigeria. Our findings show that Project Description and Communication of Results are the main areas of strength. However, Environmental Impact Prediction, and Project Decommissioning, were among the key areas requiring attention. A key finding, though, is that Mann-Whitney tests suggest that there is no evidence that the quality of EISs for the latter period (2004-2008) is higher than that of the earlier period (1998-2004). We suggest that periodic systematic review of the quality of submitted/approved EISs (c. every 3-5years) should be established to monitor trends in EIS quality and identify strong and weak areas. This would help to drive continual improvement in both the EIA processes and the resultant EISs of technical engineering projects. Such reviews have the potential to illuminate some of the underlying problems of, and solutions to, oil and gas exploration, production and transportation, and their related environmental impacts. This suggested change would also be useful internationally, including for the burgeoning exploration and production of unconventional hydrocarbon resources.
authors: School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom; School of Energy, Construction & Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Environment & Computing, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: b.anifowose@coventry.ac.uk.
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Anifowose
authors: School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom; Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, University of Coventry CV1 5FB, United Kingdom.
authors: D M
authors: DM
authors: Lawler
authors: School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom; School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Library, Surgeon's Square, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, United Kingdom.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: van der Horst
authors: School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Chapman
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D058735:Environmental Policy; D009549:Nigeria; D061329:Oil and Gas Fields; D000066388:Oil and Gas Industry / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control
keywords: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA); Environmental Impact Statement (EIS); Environmental impacts; Lee and Colley review model; Nigeria; Oil and gas projects; Project decommissioning