Offshore Drilling Essay

Williams Ozuma

Environmental Impacts of Offshore Drilling Offshore drilling Energy bonanza or Environmental disaster? if any choice is going to be made, one fact that makes the environment much germane than the offshore energy bonanza is that unlike energy, the environmental does not have a substitute and if it is destroyed we would have no where to live. Industrial extraction of hydrocarbons did not move offshore until the early 1950s. The first offshore platform was built off the coast of Louisiana in 1947. Reoccurring hikes in fuel prices, unprecedented home foreclosures, rising unemployment and increasing need for energy have prompted support for offshore oil drilling, often with dismissal of concerns about the safety of
the environment. “Offshore drilling” is a mechanical process where drilling for the purpose of extracting mineral resources, mainly oil and gas occurs in oceans, gulfs, seas, and it involves submerging huge platforms thousands of feet into sea beds. Over the past years there have been assertions that more drilling offshore will be an essential part of lowering energy costs and will free America from dependence on foreign source of energy (Baird, Stephen 14). The demerits such as environmental hazards, health problems, and alteration of nature and death of living organisms (Gulf 2) that can be caused by offshore drilling which are more enormous than the economic benefits are reasons why more drilling on coastal waters, ocean and seas should not be permitted. Offshore drilling is never a safe way to generate energy and this has been proven by various oil spill disasters, such as the 1969 blowout off of the Santa Barbara, California coast. The disaster included 80-100,000 gallons of spilled oil and inundated local beaches, causing the deaths of thousands of birds, fish, marine mammals and environmental perils.(qtd in Rose, Annette 28).This is one example of ahuge ecological disastercaused by offshore drilling. However, it is minimal in comparison to the 1979 blowout at the Ixtoc 1 offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which spilled an estimated 140 million gallons of crude oil until the well was capped nine months later (Rose, Annette 27) ; after the devastating impact had been immensely felt. Oil spills and pollutions reduce population of fish stock and other aquatic animals. Oil
Polluted water usually becomes toxic, containing organic compounds such as arsenic, lead, barium, mercury and so many more.These chemicals adversely affect the reproductive ability of fishes and fishes in their early stages of life are known to be vulnerable to oil. Therefore young fishes tend to die when exposed to high concentrations of components of crude oil. Deaths of fishes also are caused by consumption of dissolved oxygen by bacteria that feeds on spilled hydrocarbons (Baird, Stephen). As a result of this increase in mortality rate of fishes, problems of overharvesting (killing fishes faster than they can restore their numbers), and extinction of some species may surface. in addition, economic problems as a result of loss in marketable values of commercial species due to petroleum tastes (tainting) and certain bansor restrictions that are imposed immediately after oil spills may also occur. In this case commercial fishermen are deprived of their source of livelihood and the fishing industryin a State suffers financial distress. An example is the closure of commercial and recreational fishing in affected federal waters between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Pensacola Bay that occurred after the Bp spill of 2010. This closure merged 6,814 square miles (17,650 km²) of water space thus leading to a total loss of $2.5 billion in the fishing industry. These loses may cause deficit in budgets, economic debts and increase in the rate of unemployment. In 1980, the drilling platform known as the Alexander Kielland collapsed, thus killing 123 People, like the BP oil spill of 2010 killed a total of eleven workers and the oil line explosion of 2006 killed 200 people in Lagos region of Nigeria. These eventsreally assert that offshore drilling can be a life threatening and health hazardous venture to workers and victims of oil spills. As ATSDR concludes about the human hazards involved with oil drilling, “Workers, victims of oil spills, and rescue workers are exposed to a host of chemical hazards.When they come in dermal contact with drilling fluids, muds, and cuttings, they can experience dermatitis; as exposure increases, impacts can include hypokalemia, renal toxicity, and cardiovascular and neuromuscular effects” (2007). Additionally, victims of oil spills, ranging from those that stay close to oil polluted areas or those that consume oil contaminated produce also face the menaces of oil spills.
Long term exposure to waste water or drilling fluids from offshore platforms can result in ailments such as anemia, leukemia, reproductive problems, and developmental disorders. Similarly, toxins bio accumulates in fish and people who eat fish and shellfish from affected waters may experience nervous system effects, such as loss of vision and seizure (Rose, Annette 30). These diseases can be very severe and pandemic to human society, consequently causing death and abrupt reduction in human
population. Moreover, the amount of green house gases emitted by offshore oil platforms during transformation and distribution of oil makes it a disaster to the environment. . In 2007 the EIA concluded that “U.S emissions of methane from petroleum E&P was estimated at 22 MMTCO2e (million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents) in addition to total contributions of petroleum at 2, 579.9 MMTCO2e” (qtd in Rose, Annette 29). Alsoaccording to the United States
Public Interest Research Group, “a single oil rig or platform during its lifetime which is about ten to twenty years can pollute as much as seven thousand cars driving at 50 miles per day”. This enormous discharge of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere contaminates the air we breathe, makes the natural environment blemished and not conducive for us to live in. Likewise, increase in emission of these fumescan lead to climate change, global warming and ocean acidification. Scientifically, these problems have caused rises in sea level which can initiate great amount of flooding or erosions. The occurrence of these catastrophes displaces people, homes, destroys properties worth millions, creates economic set back and causes death. Furthermore, Oil spills can also render land useless and un-productive for farming activities which can lead to dire cases of famine, poverty, or starvation.
This is evinced by what is happening in the Nigerian Niger delta where the majority of its population lives in abject poverty even though this location has one of the world’s largest reserves for oil and gas. The delta has one of the largest wetlands and drainage basins in Africa and this incredibly well endowed eco- system contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet (Greenpeace internationals 11). It supports a wide variety of planting activities and fishing, which is the main occupation in this area. The Department of Petroleum Resources estimated “1.89 million barrels of petroleum were spilled into the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996 out of a total of 2.4 million barrels spilled in 4,835 incidents” (approximately 220 thousand cubic meters) (Vidal, john 11). However oil pollutions like this and many others over the past years have caused a high rate of loss in the productiveness in this region. In conclusion, the need to have a safe environment surpasses luxurious intent of obtaining energy. For us to be able to live in a safe environment and eat fishes without fear of getting diseases as a result of oil contamination; in order to conserve magnificent species of aquatic animal and also farm on fertile and productive land that will supply us food; more offshore drilling
should not be allowed to occur.

Works cited
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Kaufman, Leslie. "Oil Spill Moves Toward Nigerian Coast." New York Times 22 December 2011. web. 20 February 2012.
Patin, Stanislav. "Crude Oil Spills, Environmental Impact of." In Encyclopedia of Energy (2004): 10-17. web. 21 February 2012.
Rose, Annette. "The Environmental Impacts of Offshore Oil Drilling." 68.5 (2009): 27-32. web. 2012 February 19.
Vidal, John. "Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore." The Observer (2010): 1. web. 2012 February 2012. wells, Ken. "Santa Barbara Oil Spill." Environmental Encyclopedial 2.3 (2003): 1249-1250. web. 26 February 2012.