Near-field dispersion of produced formation water (PFW) in the Adriatic Sea: An integrated numerical–chemical approach

An Approach Integrating Chemistry and Toxicity for Monitoring the Offshore Platform Impacts

“…arsenic levels). Although, the potential hazard area is limited (some meters) because the Adriatic platforms drain only small volumes of effluent into the sea and the dilution process is rapid in the near field (Cianelli et al 2008(Cianelli et al , 2011. All results obtained for Adriatic platforms confirmed the utility of using ecotoxicology as an additional and complementary contribution to chemical analysis for monitoring offshore activities.…”

“…Analysis of some produced water contaminants used as chemical tracers to describe the dispersion of effluent into the sea; in fact, some compounds (salts, nutrients, isotopes, ions) may be used as tracers. A substance may be conveniently used as a tracer if it has some proprieties: conservative, representative of produced water, easy to analyse and to monitor (Cianelli et al, 2008). 5.…”

“…Tornambè et al (2012) studied the toxicity of diethylene glycol (chemical additive largely used during oil and gas exploitation by offshore platforms) and its combined effects with produced waters by means acute bioassays with marine/estuarine species. They observed that diethylene glycol is toxic for marine/brackish organisms at concentrations not considered dangerous for the marine environment (orders of g/l) (Cianelli et al, 2008). Besides the results of toxicity tests showed that the presence of diethylene glycol in Adriatic produced waters may alter their toxicity; in fact the addition over 5 g/l has produced synergistic effects.…”

Exposure of rotifers, crustaceans and sea urchins to produced formation waters and seawaters in the Mediterranean Sea

“…As a matter of fact, different conditions of discharge showed the same behaviour of PFWs at sea: a low volume and a superficial level of discharge for the PLATF4, a high volume and a superficial discharge for the PLATF1, medium/high volumes and deep discharges for the PLATF2 and PLATF3 did not induce toxicity in the seawater receiving the discharges. No toxicity of seawater is probably a consequence of a fast and efficient initial dilution of PFW into the sea (Cianelli et al , 2008) and the discharge conditions are likely to influence the dilution process rather than seawater toxicity. This is confirmed by the fact that no toxicity was observed on sediments collected near to the platform discharges, as reported in a previous study by Manfra et al (2007).…”

Fate of Particulate Matter Associated with Produced Water Discharge by Offshore Platforms in the Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea)

“…In the neighboring of some platforms, abnormal amounts of some substances (metals, PAH, and aliphatic hydrocarbons) detected in the sediment sampled within 50 m from the PW source have been pointed out from the monitoring programs results carried out so far [5][6][7]. Nowadays, several field measurement and numerical modeling studies investigated, with high accuracy, the fate and dispersion processes of the PW to assess the effects of discharge and the potential risks for the marine ecosystems [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. These local and regional field studies have been used to optimize the monitoring plans, as well as to implement and validate the numerical models simulating the transport and fate of the PW chemical compounds released into the marine environment.…”