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1 Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized online Chapter Title Chapter Sub-Title Offshore Environmental Effects Monitoring in Norway Regulations, Results and Developments Chapter CopyRight - Year Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 (This will be the copyright line in the final PDF) Book Name Produced Water Corresponding Author Family Name Bakke Particle Given Name Suffix Division Organization Address Torgeir Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) NO-0349, Oslo, Norway Author Family Name Green Particle Given Name Ann Mari Vik Suffix Division Organization Address Climate and Pollution Agency (Klif) Oslo, Norway Author Family Name Iversen Particle Given Name Per Erik Suffix Division Organization Address Climate and Pollution Agency (Klif) Oslo, Norway Abstract The first oil on the Norwegian continental shelf was found at the Ekofisk field in the southern North Sea in Several new discoveries were made in the years after, and from 1973, the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) required that all the licensed companies should submit annual reports on the environmental conditions in their impact areas. This requirement was one of the conditions for discharge permits, and guidance was given on the minimum scope and content of the environmental surveys to be performed. The annual reports quickly demonstrated that there was a need for better harmonisation of the monitoring methods to be used. In 1987 SFT and the offshore operators jointly hosted a 2-day workshop to agree on common strategy and methodology for offshore baseline and monitoring surveys. On basis of the workshop outcome, an expert group appointed by SFT developed a guideline document for sediment monitoring that was subsequently discussed in an open forum with the offshore operators. The guidelines were put into force in 1988 and in the same year were adopted by the Paris Commission for use in the convention waters (PARCOM 1989). In 1991 the guidelines (SFT 1990) were made mandatory for monitoring around Norwegian fields. In 1997 the guidelines were revised. A concept of regional monitoring was introduced, and guidelines for monitoring of the water column were included (SFT 1997). The latter was a response to the change in impact focus from discharge of drilling waste to produced water (PW). In 1993 strong restrictions ended regular discharges of oil on drill cuttings. At the same time, national prognoses estimated an increase in PW discharges from around 25 mill m 3 /yr in 1993 to more than 250 mill m 3 /yr in Subsequent minor guideline revisions were made in 1999 and 2001 (SFT 1999, 2001). In 2001 the guidelines were also formally annexed to the national HSE regulations for the petroleum activity.

2 AQ Chapter 25 Offshore Environmental Effects Monitoring in Norway Regulations, Results and Developments Torgeir Bakke, Ann Mari Vik Green, and Per Erik Iversen Abstract The first oil on the Norwegian continental shelf was found at the Ekofisk field in the southern North Sea in Several new discoveries were made in the years after, and from 1973, the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) required that all the licensed companies should submit annual reports on the environmental conditions in their impact areas. This requirement was one of the conditions for discharge permits, and guidance was given on the minimum scope and content of the environmental surveys to be performed. The annual reports quickly demonstrated that there was a need for better harmonisation of the monitoring methods to be used. In 1987 SFT and the offshore operators jointly hosted a 2-day workshop to agree on common strategy and methodology for offshore baseline and monitoring surveys. On basis of the workshop outcome, an expert group appointed by SFT developed a guideline document for sediment monitoring that was subsequently discussed in an open forum with the offshore operators. The guidelines were put into force in 1988 and in the same year were adopted by the Paris Commission for use in the convention waters (PARCOM 1989). In 1991 the guidelines (SFT 1990) were made mandatory for monitoring around Norwegian fields. In 1997 the guidelines were revised. A concept of regional monitoring was introduced, and guidelines for monitoring of the water column were included (SFT 1997). The latter was a response to the change in impact focus from discharge of drilling waste to produced water (PW). In 1993 strong restrictions ended regular discharges of oil on drill cuttings. At the same time, national prognoses estimated an increase in PW discharges from around 25 mill m 3 /yr in 1993 to more than 250 mill m 3 /yr in Subsequent minor guideline revisions were made in 1999 and 2001 (SFT 1999, 2001). In 2001 the guidelines were also formally annexed to the national HSE regulations for the petroleum activity. T. Bakke (B) Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), NO-0349 Oslo, Norway K. Lee, J. Neff (eds.), Produced Water, DOI / _25, C Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

3 T. Bakke et al Purpose The offshore environmental monitoring programme serves several proposes. It provides knowledge on the general environmental conditions at the offshore installations and how the conditions might change in time and space. Through combined analysis of environmental factors, contaminant exposure and biological conditions, it generates information on dose response relationships between cuttings deposits and benthic organisms and between PW effluents and pelagic organisms. It also provides a feedback mechanism that allows the Authorities to assess the sufficiency of their regulations to help ensure that that impact from regular offshore operations does not exceed what was predicted in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) made prior to the development of the offshore fields. 2 How Does Norway Regulate? The HSE regulations are based on the polluter pays principle. These regulations require that the offshore operators perform environmental monitoring at their own cost and according to the monitoring guidelines (SFT 2001). SFT may also require additional environmental investigations and expects the operators to actively improve the monitoring strategies and procedures. The strongest example of the latter is the funding of a 2-year international field-going workshop ( ) to develop appropriate water column monitoring procedures (Hylland et al. 2002). 3 Timing of Environmental Assessments The regulations address the whole lifetime of an offshore field (Fig. 25.1). Prior to the opening of a new offshore region or area for exploration, the Authorities prepare an EIA for the region describing the expected petroleum developments and the natural environment that may be affected. The EIA identifies all potential sources of impact from exploration, development, production and decommissioning and evaluate impact patterns and significance. After the exploration phase of a field and prior to its development, the operator is requested to produce a similar, but site-specific EIA, addressing the development of that particular field. At this stage, the operator shall also perform an environmental baseline survey of the sea floor sediments according to the regulations. Corresponding description of the water column baseline conditions is not required since the focus here is on spatial (i.e. distance from a PW source) rather than temporal trends. For fields close to the coast and in other particularly sensitive areas, the sediment baseline survey shall be performed before the exploration phase. During development, production period and decommissioning of a field, regular environmental monitoring surveys

4 25 Offshore Environmental Effects Monitoring in Norway Regulations, Results Fig Norwegian environmental assessment requirements and responsible entities at different phases of an offshore development; white arrow: requirement in sensitive areas Global EIA, Authorities Field specific EIA, Operators Opening of a new offshore area Exploration Development Production Decommissioning Baseline survey, Operators Environmental monitoring, Operators of the water column and sediments shall be performed according to the frequency and procedures specified in the regulations. SFT may then decide if there is a need to continue the monitoring after decommissioning. 4 Baseline and Monitoring Strategies The monitoring strategy has taken a regional approach. The Norwegian continental shelf is divided into 11 geographical regions according to latitude (Fig. 25.2). Sediment monitoring surveys are performed in the six regions with ongoing petroleum activities. The water column monitoring has two independent elements: Environmental Condition Monitoring (ECM) and Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM). The ECM focuses on health and contamination status of commercial fish stocks and the EEM covers effects measurements around specific PW effluents. The ECM is at present performed in 10 of the regions, including 2 reference regions with no offshore activity and the EEM is performed in 4 regions with ongoing production. 4.1 Sediment Monitoring Sediment monitoring is performed every third year in each region, and the region is treated as an entity where predefined stations around each installation and several regional reference stations are samples in one common field survey. The total number of stations per survey ranges from about 140 to more than 250 in a region. Replicate sampling from each station is done by use of 0.1 m 2 grabs. The basic principles for the sediment monitoring are

5 T. Bakke et al Fig Regions for offshore sediment and water column monitoring at the Norwegian shelf Sediments ECM EEM synoptic physical, chemical and macrofauna characterisation of the same sediment stations surveys performed during the same time window each year standard operating procedures (SOPs), uniform across all fields and regions, in all phases of a survey from planning of sampling design to final report format emphasis on multivariate statistical analyses of environmental and biological data requirement of formalised quality assurance procedures and documentation by the consultants performing the work All sediment results since 1990 have been gathered in a common database where they are subjected to quality control. This has ensured a standardisation that is as effective as possible for such a large-scale, multi-year sampling programme. The database is available to the general public.

6 25 Offshore Environmental Effects Monitoring in Norway Regulations, Results Water Column Monitoring The ECM started in 1994 and has since 2000 been performed every 3 years. Each year a subset of the 10 regions is monitored. The focus is on body burden of selected petroleum derived contaminants as well as selected biological effects parameters (biomarkers) in commercial pelagic fish species, e.g. cod (Gadus morhua), saithe (Pollachius virens) and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), with an option for including other species as well. The surveys are done as an element of the regular fish stock assessment surveys performed by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR).. The main purpose of the ECM is to provide a quality assessment of fish stocks that may have been exposed to PW or drilling effluents. The regulations do not specify the analyses to be done, but both the selection of regions and the measurement programme shall be approved by SFT prior to each survey. The EEM is done annually and in one of the regions, the first survey in One field in the region is selected as the monitoring target, and the purpose is to assess biological effects of the PW effluents from that field. The EEM covers measurements of exposure and biomarkers in caged cod (G. morhua) and blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) deployed at set distances from the PW outlets (Fig. 25.3). Cage positioning is based on plume dispersion modelling (Johnsen et al. 2000; Durell et al. 2006). The high level principles for the EEM are laid down in the regulations. A survey protocol detailing the site to be monitored, the field Fig Combined cod and blue mussel cage for the water column EEM prior to deployment at theekofiskfield(photoc.harman,niva)

7 T. Bakke et al sampling and experimental procedures and the selection of biomarkers is developed for each year. The survey protocol is approved by SFT prior to a tender procedure. 5 Monitoring Results 5.1 Sediments The sediment monitoring has created time series of sediment conditions around each of the Norwegian offshore installations and for many of them from before their development had started. Some of these series cover a time span of more than 25 years (e.g. the Ekofisk and Statfjord fields). The results have revealed not only extensive sediment contamination and fauna effects out to 3 5 km from installations discharging oil-based drill cuttings (Olsgard and Gray 1995; Gray et al.1999), but also a clear reduction in the impacted areas as most of these fields after such discharges were ceased around 1993 (Bakke and Nilssen 2004; Renaud et al. 2008). An example is the development of fauna effects at Gyda (Fig. 25.4) showing an increase in THC contamination until 1993 and a subsequent rapid decrease within 3 years. The extent of fauna impact follows a similar pattern, but with a delayed recovery probably regulated by the recruitment rate of the fauna. Renaud et al. (2008) showed that the total area contaminated with hydrocarbons from drill cuttings and the area with impacted fauna decreased during in three of the five regions with available time series (monitoring in the Barents region has recently started). The 2006 surveys concluded that in one of the regions, no faunal impact could be seen at any station (UNIFOB 2007), implying that any remaining effects are confined Km 2 impacted THC Fauna Year Fig Temporal change in estimated areas (km 2 ) of THC contamination and fauna effects around the Gyda field, southern North Sea, from 1987 (baseline survey) to 2005

8 25 Offshore Environmental Effects Monitoring in Norway Regulations, Results to within the 250 m periphery around the installations, which is the closest distance covered by the monitoring. The time series from the regional reference stations have also provided insight into the natural variation of the shelf benthic fauna over time. Renaud et al. (2008) showed that a systematic long-term shift in the community structure had occurred in all regions during A typical feature is that the natural change in community structure from 1 year to another is so strong that it most often overrides the differences between stations within 1 year. 5.2 Water Column Monitoring None of the ECM surveys have detected any elevation in the tissue levels of compounds that can be linked to PW discharges. The EEM monitoring has generated data on a large range of genetic, biochemical, physiological and anatomical effects parameters in the caged cod and mussel (e.g. Sundt et al. 2006), but only few responses have been linked convincingly to PW exposure. One of the main problems has been to deploy cages in positions that ensure a gradient in exposure to the PW plume, and also to quantify the real exposure level that the cages endure for 1 2 months. During the surveys in 2003 and 2004, no effects were detected, but at the Ekofisk field in 2006 the levels of PAHs in mussel, PAH metabolites in cod bile, as well as two biomarkers (lysosomal membrane stability in mussel and CYP1A in cod) could be linked reliably to distance from the PW outlets (Sundt et al. 2006). The results suggested that effects were only detectable close to the outlets, which was in line with earlier risk analyses of these PW effluents (Neff J, unpublished). 6 Use of Results The Authorities have used the results to obtain an overview of the environmental status and temporal changes in sediments, both regionally and in the vicinity of the petroleum installations. The results are also important to ensure sufficiency of the national regulations. In 1988 an assessment of the monitoring data from the Statfjord field suggested that much greater bottom areas than predicted by the oil companies showed biological effects of oil-based drill cuttings (Reiersen et al. 1988). Although the assessment was much debated (Gray et al. 1999), the response of the Authorities was to implement legislation regarding the amount of oil allowed on cuttings to be discharged, resulting in the effective ban on discharges of oil-based cuttings in A later comprehensive analysis of the available monitoring data by Olsgard and Gray (1995) showed that the legislation was justified. Later the monitoring results also revealed that discharges of cuttings from drilling with synthetic mud, which replaced oil-based muds after 1993, also resulted in effects on the benthic fauna that were considered unacceptable. Discharges of such cuttings are now also prohibited from Norwegian installations. The Precautionary Principle and also the comprehensive knowledge of the benthic impact from drilling discharges that

9 T. Bakke et al. AQ has been generated from the North Sea and the Mid Norway shelf have elicited a legislative Zero Discharge principle for future petroleum exploration and production in Norwegian Arctic regions, implying no operational discharges of oil or environmentally harmful substances. Application of the water column monitoring data to assess sufficiency of legislation has hitherto been far more difficult than for sediments. The ECM serves its function as regular control of the quality of fish harvest going to the market, but cannot support regulation of discharges from individual fields. The present EEM biomarker approach is sufficiently sensitive to function as early warning signals for significant effects on pelagic populations, and the cages may be seen as watch dogs to ensure that there are no unexpected impacts from PW discharges. Still the history of water column monitoring is, as yet, too short to confirm the impression that the effects are only local. An important use of the monitoring data that has not yet been fully utilised is testing of compliance with impact predictions given in the site-specific EIAs. As long as the monitoring tries to answer questions such as Are there effects on the ecosystem?, value judgements will be needed which are open to constant argument (Gray et al. 1999). Thus it is essential that EIAs make quantitative predictions that can be assessed against agreed acceptance criteria. When the predictions are acceptable, the main purpose of the environmental monitoring will be to control whether the predictions hold or not. 7 Future Development of the Norwegian Offshore Environmental Monitoring The present knowledge on the sediment ecosystem response to the offshore petroleum activities generated through nearly 25 years of harmonised monitoring is strong. The sediment monitoring reveals few surprises today. This alone calls for a revision of the existing requirements and probably a simplification of the surveys. During 2008 this was evaluated by SFT with the help of a scientific expert group, and several modifications to the monitoring guidelines are being considered. The change from drilling with oil and synthetic fluids to new generations of water-based muds calls for a change in sediment parameters to be measured. Oilrelated parameters will become less important. Recent experiments have shown that water-based muds may also have significant effects on benthic fauna (Schaaning et al. 2008). Oxygen depletion is one important effect factor, but chemical toxicity or physical impact from cuttings particles cannot be ruled out (Cranford et al. 1999). Hence it is still too early to identify the optimal set of monitoring parameters that should be included to cover such impacts. Since more fields are moving into a late life stage with less drilling activity, the frequency of the sediment surveys in one region could be more flexible than every 3 years. The frequency will probably be tailored to each field individually based on, e.g., technical configuration, discharge pattern and local impact trends seen.

10 25 Offshore Environmental Effects Monitoring in Norway Regulations, Results As the areas of impact are decreasing, the monitoring emphasis will be on nearzone sites, and there is a need for moving closer to the installations than the present 250 m. This will often be in conflict with safety zones around the installations, but one will also have to abandon the present radial station design (c.f., Gray et al. 1999) and tailor the station layout to the configuration of the subsea installations. Approaching the platforms may also call for other sampling techniques than grabs, such as ROV-operated point samplers, photo and video recording, and automatic instrument vehicles deployed onto the sediment. Increase petroleum activity in the Barents Sea region is also a challenge. The regulations apply to the whole Norwegian shelf, but the Zero Discharge requirement for Arctic developments could justify simplification of the environmental monitoring, especially regarding chemical contamination. The benthic fauna monitoring should however be kept at the present level, until one knows whether the impact pattern seen in the shelf regions further south is representative of the Arctic benthic ecosystems (Olsen et al. 2007). The water column EEM is still in a developmental stage and is expected to change as the research on biomarkers advances. The core set of biomarkers used is considered sufficiently sensitive for the purpose, and some more should be candidates if their procedural variability can be reduced. The caging approach is a worst-case exposure scenario, since pelagic organisms by nature are not forced to stay in fixed positions relative to a pollution source, but it seems to be the only viable way to cover exposure gradients. There is a need to improve methods to estimate the real exposure, and also to ensure that caged organisms are actually exposed to PW plumes by, e.g., increasing the number of cages. The latter is an economic issue, but could be overcome by putting more emphasis on caging only mussels and less on combined mussel and cod cages. 8 Conclusions The offshore monitoring programme established for the oil and gas industry is by far the most comprehensive marine environmental monitoring activity in Norway today and may be the most comprehensive programme related to the offshore industry anywhere in the world. Procedural harmonisation, strict quality assurance requirements, and open access to the data have provided Authorities, operators and the scientific community with reliable knowledge on the impact of the petroleum industry. Furthermore, these monitoring activities have generated a very good data set for research on the sediment ecology of the Norwegian shelf. Even after revision and simplification of the requirements, it will be ensured that the monitoring will continue to add to the valuable long-term time series of data. Acknowledgements This chapter is based on a large number of survey reports produced by numerous consulting companies on contract from the offshore operators. The ones referred directly to are cited, and the others are hereby thanked collectively for their contribution. This chapter has been prepared under contract no from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) to the Norwegian Institute for Water Research.

11 T. Bakke et al. AQ References Bakke T, Nilssen I (2004) Harmonised monitoring of offshore drilling waste effects in Norway. In: Armsworthy SL, Cranford PJ, Lee K (eds) Proceedings of the offshore oil and gas environmental effects monitoring workshop: approaches and technologies. Battelle Press, Columbus, OH Cranford PJ, Gordon Jr DC, Lee K, Armsworthy SL, Tremblay G-H (1999) Chronic toxicity and physical disturbance effects of water- and oil-based drilling fluids and some major constituents on adult sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus). Mar Envir Res 48: Durell G, Utvik TR, Johnsen S, Frost T, Neff J (2006) Oil well produced water discharges to the North Sea. Part I: Comparison of deployed mussels (Mytilus edulis), semi-permeable membrane devices, and the DREAM model predictions to estimate the dispersion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Mar Environ Res 62: Hylland K, Becker G, Klungsøyr J, Lanf T., McIntosh A, Serigstad B, Thain JE, Thomas KV, Utvik TIR, Vethaak D, Wosniok W (2002) An ICES workshop on biological effects in pelagic ecosystems (BECPELAG): summary of results and recommendations. ICES ASC 2002 CM 2002/X:13 Gray JS, Bakke T, Beck HJ, Nilssen I (1999) Managing the environmental effects of the Norwegian oil and gas industry: from conflict to consensus. Mar Pollut Bull 38: Johnsen S, Frost TK, Hjelsvold M, Utvik TR (2000) The environmental impact factor a proposed tool for produced water impact reduction, management and regulation. SPE paper SPE Int Conf, Stavanger, Norway Olsen GH, Carrol ML, Renaud PE, Ambrose WG Jr, Olssøn R Carrol J (2007) Benthic community response to petroleum-associated components in Arctic versus temperate marine sediments. Mar Biol 151: Olsgard F, Gray JS (1995) A comprehensive analysis of the effects of offshore oil and gas exploration and production on the benthic communities of the Norwegian continental shelf. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 122: PARCOM (1989) Guidelines for monitoring methods to be used in the vicinity of platforms in the North Sea. Chameleon Press, London Reiersen LO, Gray JS, Palmork KH, Lange R (1988). Monitoring in the vicinity of oil and gas platforms: results from the Norwegian sector of the North Sea and recommended methods for forthcoming surveillance. In: Engelhardt FR, Ray JP, Gillam AH (eds) Drilling waste. Elsevier, London Renaud PE, Jensen T, Wassbotten I, Mannvik HP, Botnen H (2008) Offshore sediment monitoring on the Norwegian shelf. A regional approach Report no Akvaplan-niva AS, Tromsø Schaanning MT, Trannum HC, Øxnevad S, Carroll J, Bakke T (in press) Experimental work on effects of water- and olefin-based drill cuttings on biogeochemical fluxes and macrobenthos of marine sediments. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol SFT (1990) Manual for monitoring surveys around petroleum installations in Norwegian marine areas (in Norwegian). SFT 90:01 TA-699/1990. Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, Oslo SFT (1997) Guidelines for Environmental Monitoring of the Petroleum Activity on the Norwegian Shelf (in Norwegian). SFT 97:01 TA-1424/1997. Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, Oslo SFT (1999) Environmental monitoring of the petroleum activity on the Norwegian shelf (in Norwegian). SFT 99:01 TA-1641/1999. Appendix 1 to the Information Duty Regulations Requirements for Reporting from Offshore Petroleum Activities. Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, Oslo. Sundt RC, Ruus A, Grung M, Pampanin DM, Barsiene J, Skarphedinsdottir H (2006) Water column monitoring Summary report. Report AM 2006/013. Akvamiljø, Stavanger UNIFOB (2007) Environmental monitoring of oil and gas fields in Region II, UNIFOB, Bergen (in Norwegian with English summary)

12 This is an Author Query Page Integra Chapter 25 Q. No. Query AQ1 The reference SFT 2001 is not provided in reference list. Kindly check. AQ2 AQ3 The reference Schaaning et al is not provide in reference list. Kindly check. Please update year, volume number and page range for reference Schaanning et al., in press. And also provided citation.