Sources of environmental disturbance associated with offshore oil and gas developments

The North Sea is one of the most productive fishing areas in the world, producing 3.5% of the world's catch of fish, and as a consequence is one of the most widely studied areas of sea. The potential sources of disturbance to the environment from oil and gas production are seismic surveys, physical disturbance to the sediment during platform placement, drilling, and through burying and trenching of pipelines, and pollution from pipeline and platform discharges and oil spills. Studies on the biological effects of such disturbances are repeated. These include investigations into the impact on the species diversity of marine fauna and oil taint and petrogenic hydrocarbons in fish. It has become clear that oil based mud cuttings discharge accounts for the major source of hydrocarbon contaminations from oil production and has a major deleterious effect on benthors in the immediate vicinity of the discharge. (Author)