TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractDuring the past 2 years the policy within the North-Sea countries with regards to regulating use and discharge of chemicals offshore has changed. The work on harmonization of regulations has progressed through the Oslo and Paris Commission (OSPAR), the European regulatory body for the offshore environmental issues. However, d espite the outspoken efforts to establish a harmonized chemical hazard and risk evaluation and control system, many countries have continued to use their own systems.

This paper describes how chemical hazard and risk assessment systems are being used in North Sea countries. Despite efforts to establish a harmonised chemical hazard and risk system, many countries have developed their own systems. For this reason, three major service companies have been working together to evaluate the CHARM III model (Chemical Hazard Assessment and Risk Management) and the accepted chemical hazard and risk assessment systems. Initially implemented by the Oslo Paris Commission (OSPAR), the European regulatory body for offshore environmental issues, CHARM III was a significant step towards developing a simple model that generated consistent hazard/risk evaluation results. During the harmonisation process, the North Sea countries also made attempts to develop a harmonised mandatory control system. Currently, four North Sea countries still rely on their own chemical evaluation systems. The three service companies have used the CHARM III model to perform chemical hazard evaluations on a representative range of cementing, completion, workover and spacer chemicals. The same chemicals were also evaluated with the different pre-screen systems used by the North Sea countries.

During the past 2 years the policy within the North-Sea countries with regards to regulating use and discharge of chemicals offshore has changed. The work on harmonization of regulations has progressed through the Oslo and Paris Commission (OSPAR), the European regulatory body for the offshore environmental issues. However, despite the outspoken efforts to establish a harmonized chemical hazard and risk evaluation and control system, many countries have continued to use their own systems. This paper describes the current trend in the oil and gas industry towards zero discharge of offshore chemicals. Operational as well as regulatory view points are given. The zero discharge trend is viewed against several policies of OSPAR, e.g. the Action Plan 1998–2003, Strategy with regard to hazardous substances and the Harmonized Mandatory Control System (HMCS). The various ways in which the North-Sea countries have implemented the OSPAR guidelines so far and the relationship of zero discharge with for example the development of more environmentally acceptable chemicals are discussed. The role of the revised Chemical Hazard and Risk Management (CHARM) Model is also taken into this review. From their own experience the three major service companies describe how this affects the development and use of certain chemicals. Background During the last 2 years OSPAR (Oslo and Paris commission) has continued its harmonization efforts on regulating the use and discharge of offshore chemicals. The Harmonized Mandatory Control System (HMCS) that was introduced with PARCOM 96/31 for a trial period of 2 years was extended for another 2years. Experience has been built among industry and regulating authorities from applying the principles of the HMCS on the evaluation of chemicals. This has led to a replacement of several chemicals that were expected to give high environmental impact. Progress in the replacement of chemicals has been welcomed by the industry. The service companies have taken a leading role in this work and have invested significant resources over the past years to obtain these results. However, the experience gained from applying the HMCS on chemical evaluation also revealed a need for revision.

North Sea governments and the oil industry have taken the innovative step of working together on minimizing the impact of their activities on the environment, recognizing the need for pan-European cooperation on environmental issues. The Chemical Hazard Assessment and Risk Management (CHARM) Model is a major step towards cooperation among various North Sea governments, operators, and oil services companies operating in the same area. Initiated in December 1992, CHARM is a mathematical computer model which evaluates the hazard levels of offshore E&P chemicals used in the North Sea area. The environmental characteristics of a chemical product are evaluated and combined with the intended use of the product to establish its potential effects on a particular environmental area. CHARM operates sequentially in four modules: prescreening begins, followed by hazard assessment, risk analysis, risk management. Input and output of data are maintained in a database format. Since CHARM is used as a decision support tool, the user can define the criteria for the use of CHARM and the decisions made based on its results. Some operators have vested so much trust in the CHARM Model, that they use it as a decision making tool. The pumping service companies in the North Sea are working together to offer information from actual operating experience. The result of this work for cementing is currently being discussed and incorporated in the model. Other groups of chemicals like stimulation, completion and workover are currently being documented. Moreover, the significance of industry and regulatory bodies working together to improve the environment is enormous. Background In March 1990, ministers at the Third International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea recognized the need "to develop and adopt a harmonized mandatory control system for the use and discharge of offshore E&P chemicals." The development of the system was assigned to the Oslo-Paris Commission (OSPARCOM), the European regulatory body in charge of North Sea environment. OSPARCOM invited the members of the offshore industry to participate in the development of new regulations. The oil industry international offshore Exploration & Production (E&P) Forum, the European Oilfield Specialty Chemicals Association (EOSCA), and Dutch and Norwegian authorities employed consultants to develop a decision support model that evaluates the environmental risk for E&P chemicals. The model was named the Chemical Hazard Assessment and Risk Management (CHARM). The participants decided that CHARM must provide the following data:–a transparent and simple calculation of hazard and risk levels for the marine environment on the basis of chemical properties–programmable rules for data handling–default definitions–calculation principles The CHARM project was initiated in December 1993. The development of CHARM was divided into three phases. During the first phase, consultants created a framework for Hazard Assessment, Risk Analysis and Risk Management. At the end of the first phase, the model could perform environmental evaluations of the use and discharge of production chemicals. The consultants released a temporary software version of the model. P. 843

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