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BASELINE ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FOR THE OIL AND GAS PROSPECTING AND EXPLORATION

V. Georgiev, M. Toneva

Abstract

The Bulgarian environmental legislation does not formulate special requirements for the performing of baseline environmental studies and the environmental impact assessment of the prospecting and exploration activities for oil and gas. The oil and gas exploration and prospecting activities are usually performed on areas of significant size, and are connected with specific impact on the environment, therefore it is accepted in the good international oil practice to perform obligatory baseline environmental studies prior the beginning of the planned activities. Their aim is to obtain extensive information on the state of the environment before the start of the prospecting and exploration activities for oil and gas within a certain territory, and especially when such activities have been performed in the past by other oil companies. In this aspect, the baseline environmental studies do not contradict the Bulgarian environmental legislation and the foreign companies entering Bulgaria apply their experience and traditional practices, and require that such studies are performed by local expert teams. This report presents the acquired experience of the expert team of GeoMarine Centre Ltd in conducting baseline environmental studies within a significant territory, where oil and gas exploration and prospecting activities have been performed in the past. When conducting these studies, the recommendations and methodological approaches adopted by the good international practice were used, as well as the standard normative requirements of the Bulgarian environmental legislation. The studies involved the following main stages: В· Document studies of available archive data on the conducted in the past prospecting and exploration activities for oil and gas within the borders of the studied territory, during which data was extracted from the various available information sources on the methodology, technology and spatial distribution of the conducted in the past geophysical (seismic) and geological (drilling) works and their impact on the environment; В· Assessment of the state of the separate environmental components as per data from all available sources of information; В· Conducting field studies in pre-identified (on basis of the document studies) sectors, during which observations were made of the state of the environment per its components, as well as of the environmentally sensitive areas in the borders of the studied territory; В· Studying of the sectors with suspected evidence of old environmental damages from prospecting and exploration activities for oil and gas performed in the past; В· Sampling and laboratory testing of environmental components which experienced the impact of the above activities. The report gives an assessment of the used methodology, as well as of the established specific impact on the different environmental components due to conducted in the past prospecting and exploration activities for oil and gas, and the environmental damage they caused.

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