Current understanding of the ecological risk of mercury from subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine ecosystems

Fenny Kho; Darren J. Koppel; Rebecca von Hellfeld; Astley Hastings; Francesca Gissi; Tom Cresswell; Stuart Higgins

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129348

Current understanding of the ecological risk of mercury from subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine ecosystems

Fenny Kho, Darren J. Koppel, Rebecca von Hellfeld^*, Astley Hastings, Francesca Gissi, Tom Cresswell, Stuart Higgins

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Many oil and gas fields are nearing production cessation and will require decommissioning, with the preferred method being complete infrastructure removal in most jurisdictions. However, decommissioning in situ, leaving some disused components in place, is an option that may be agreed to by the regulators and reservoir titleholders in some circumstances. To understand this option's viability, the environmental impacts and risks of any residual contaminants assessed. Mercury, a contaminant of concern, is naturally present in hydrocarbon reservoirs, may contaminate offshore processing and transmission infrastructure, and can biomagnify in marine ecosystems. Mercury's impact is dependent on its speciation, concentration, and the exposure duration. However, research characterising and quantifying the amount of mercury in offshore infrastructure and the efficacy of decontamination is limited. This review describes the formation of mercury-contaminated products within oil and gas infrastructure, expected exposure pathways after environmental release, possible impacts, and key research gaps regarding the ecological risk of in situ decommissioned contaminated infrastructure. Suggestions are made to overcome these gaps, improving the in situ mercury quantification in infrastructure, understanding environmental controls on, and forecasting of, mercury methylation and bioaccumulation, and the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors within decommissioned infrastructures.

Original language	English
Article number	129348
Number of pages	18
Journal	Journal of Hazardous Materials
Volume	438
Early online date	4 Jul 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129348
Publication status	Published - 15 Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University (grant number 13266). The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia, Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. Astley Hastings is funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen.

The authors thank Professor Claus Otto (Curtin University) and Professor Richard Neilson (National Decommissioning Centre, Aberdeen, UK.) for comments and support to the project team; and Samantha Jarvis (National Environment Resources Australia), Professor Peter Macreadie, Dr Rick Tinker, and the industry partners of the National Decommissioning Research Initiative for helpful comments to this project. This research was funded by the Australian Government's Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University (grant number 13266). The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia, Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. Astley Hastings is funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen. Past research has shown that mercury associates with offshore oil and gas pipelines as well as other products associated with the infrastructure, deeming such materials “hazardous”. However, the current environmental risk assessments for decommissioning activities of such contaminated materials does not take into account the complexity of the compound's nature and the potential harmful effects on e.g. marine food webs. This review paper has outlined these gaps in our current understanding, as well as providing advice on addressing these gaps to ensure that the marine environmental risk assessments reflect the hazardous nature of mercury-contaminated offshore infrastructure.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors

Keywords

Contaminated pipelines
Environmental impact assessment
Offshore decommissioning
Rigs to reefs

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

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© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Cite this

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title = "Current understanding of the ecological risk of mercury from subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine ecosystems",

abstract = "Many oil and gas fields are nearing production cessation and will require decommissioning, with the preferred method being complete infrastructure removal in most jurisdictions. However, decommissioning in situ, leaving some disused components in place, is an option that may be agreed to by the regulators and reservoir titleholders in some circumstances. To understand this option's viability, the environmental impacts and risks of any residual contaminants assessed. Mercury, a contaminant of concern, is naturally present in hydrocarbon reservoirs, may contaminate offshore processing and transmission infrastructure, and can biomagnify in marine ecosystems. Mercury's impact is dependent on its speciation, concentration, and the exposure duration. However, research characterising and quantifying the amount of mercury in offshore infrastructure and the efficacy of decontamination is limited. This review describes the formation of mercury-contaminated products within oil and gas infrastructure, expected exposure pathways after environmental release, possible impacts, and key research gaps regarding the ecological risk of in situ decommissioned contaminated infrastructure. Suggestions are made to overcome these gaps, improving the in situ mercury quantification in infrastructure, understanding environmental controls on, and forecasting of, mercury methylation and bioaccumulation, and the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors within decommissioned infrastructures.",

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author = "Fenny Kho and Koppel, {Darren J.} and {von Hellfeld}, Rebecca and Astley Hastings and Francesca Gissi and Tom Cresswell and Stuart Higgins",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by the Australian Government{\textquoteright}s Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University (grant number 13266). The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia, Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. Astley Hastings is funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen. The authors thank Professor Claus Otto (Curtin University) and Professor Richard Neilson (National Decommissioning Centre, Aberdeen, UK.) for comments and support to the project team; and Samantha Jarvis (National Environment Resources Australia), Professor Peter Macreadie, Dr Rick Tinker, and the industry partners of the National Decommissioning Research Initiative for helpful comments to this project. This research was funded by the Australian Government's Industry Growth Centre National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) through a National Decommissioning Research Initiative (NDRI) grant to Curtin University (grant number 13266). The NDRI project was funded by eight industry partners including Shell Australia, Esso Australia, Chevron Australia, BHP Petroleum, Woodside Energy, Santos Limited, ConocoPhillips Pipeline Australia, and Vermilion Oil and Gas Australia. Astley Hastings is funded by the National Decommissioning Centre, Scotland, and the University of Aberdeen. Past research has shown that mercury associates with offshore oil and gas pipelines as well as other products associated with the infrastructure, deeming such materials “hazardous”. However, the current environmental risk assessments for decommissioning activities of such contaminated materials does not take into account the complexity of the compound's nature and the potential harmful effects on e.g. marine food webs. This review paper has outlined these gaps in our current understanding, as well as providing advice on addressing these gaps to ensure that the marine environmental risk assessments reflect the hazardous nature of mercury-contaminated offshore infrastructure. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors",

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AU - Gissi, Francesca

AU - Cresswell, Tom

AU - Higgins, Stuart

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N2 - Many oil and gas fields are nearing production cessation and will require decommissioning, with the preferred method being complete infrastructure removal in most jurisdictions. However, decommissioning in situ, leaving some disused components in place, is an option that may be agreed to by the regulators and reservoir titleholders in some circumstances. To understand this option's viability, the environmental impacts and risks of any residual contaminants assessed. Mercury, a contaminant of concern, is naturally present in hydrocarbon reservoirs, may contaminate offshore processing and transmission infrastructure, and can biomagnify in marine ecosystems. Mercury's impact is dependent on its speciation, concentration, and the exposure duration. However, research characterising and quantifying the amount of mercury in offshore infrastructure and the efficacy of decontamination is limited. This review describes the formation of mercury-contaminated products within oil and gas infrastructure, expected exposure pathways after environmental release, possible impacts, and key research gaps regarding the ecological risk of in situ decommissioned contaminated infrastructure. Suggestions are made to overcome these gaps, improving the in situ mercury quantification in infrastructure, understanding environmental controls on, and forecasting of, mercury methylation and bioaccumulation, and the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors within decommissioned infrastructures.

AB - Many oil and gas fields are nearing production cessation and will require decommissioning, with the preferred method being complete infrastructure removal in most jurisdictions. However, decommissioning in situ, leaving some disused components in place, is an option that may be agreed to by the regulators and reservoir titleholders in some circumstances. To understand this option's viability, the environmental impacts and risks of any residual contaminants assessed. Mercury, a contaminant of concern, is naturally present in hydrocarbon reservoirs, may contaminate offshore processing and transmission infrastructure, and can biomagnify in marine ecosystems. Mercury's impact is dependent on its speciation, concentration, and the exposure duration. However, research characterising and quantifying the amount of mercury in offshore infrastructure and the efficacy of decontamination is limited. This review describes the formation of mercury-contaminated products within oil and gas infrastructure, expected exposure pathways after environmental release, possible impacts, and key research gaps regarding the ecological risk of in situ decommissioned contaminated infrastructure. Suggestions are made to overcome these gaps, improving the in situ mercury quantification in infrastructure, understanding environmental controls on, and forecasting of, mercury methylation and bioaccumulation, and the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors within decommissioned infrastructures.

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KW - Environmental impact assessment

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KW - Rigs to reefs

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Current understanding of the ecological risk of mercury from subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine ecosystems

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

'Whale oil be damned' Gaps in marine contamination data

Mercury in the North Sea

Cite this

Current understanding of the ecological risk of mercury from subsea oil and gas infrastructure to marine ecosystems

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Activities

'Whale oil be damned' Gaps in marine contamination data

Mercury in the North Sea

Cite this