About one fifth of the world's oil production comes from the sea. To extract it, drills are used in open water. Here is where they are and what damage they cause to the environment.
One fifth of the world's oil production comes from the sea. To extract it, offshore drilling platforms are used — that is, in open water — with significant risks to marine biodiversity. In March 2016, the total number of platforms in active prospecting (i.e. exploratory surveys at sea) or oil and gas extraction worldwide was 1,551 (according to data from Eni Scuola). That is almost 12 per cent fewer than those active in February (which stood at 1,761), and 18 per cent fewer than in January 2016 (1,891). And yet the financial world and industry operators maintain that offshore drilling will make it possible to extract oil for a very, very long time to come. Perhaps too long for the level of tolerance our planet can sustain.
Offshore drilling activities began in the late 1930s in the Gulf of Mexico. From the 1950s onwards, the first modern offshore installations were set up, and they experienced a genuine boom in the 1970s. During the 1980s, technologies were developed for extraction in moderately deep waters, while in the 1990s attention shifted to hydrocarbon deposits in deeper seas.
A well can produce from 500 to 1,000 tonnes of oil per day (a few thousand barrels) and several hundred thousand cubic metres of natural gas, with an overall lifespan of around 30 years. When extracted, the oil travels up the pipeline driven by the pressure of the water and gas present in the reservoir: in this way, 30 per cent of the oil and 90 per cent of the gas in the well can be recovered. By increasing pressure in the reservoir, a further 10–15 per cent of material is recovered, and an additional 10–15 per cent can be extracted by injecting emulsions, steam or solvents that wash the rocks and release more oil. Around 40 per cent of the oil contained in a reservoir remains in the rock and cannot be extracted with currently available technologies. It is precisely on this aspect that oil research is concentrating: by improving available technology, there is the possibility of extracting a greater quantity of oil and extending the lifespan of open reservoirs.
The search for oil at sea, as well as improving technologies, is shifting interest towards new drilling areas. One of the most promising is the Arctic region. Following the halt to offshore drilling ordered by Barack Obama before leaving the United States presidency, the European Parliament voted on a motion — put forward by MEPs Sirpa Pietikainen (European People's Party, EPP) and Urmas Paet (Alliance of Democrats and Liberals for Europe, ALDE) — to safeguard the Arctic and introduce a ban on the extraction of oil and natural gas.
"The Arctic region is particularly vulnerable. If we destroy it by using its resources in an unsustainable way, we will not only destroy a unique region, but also accelerate climate change and pollute a source of clean water. The effects on global fish stocks would furthermore be catastrophic," Pietikainen explained.
But despite the melting of ice having reduced the frozen sea by 40 per cent compared to 1980s levels, its geopolitical importance in terms of energy supply is growing rapidly. The Russian armed forces have founded at least six new bases north of the Arctic Circle since 2015, including six deep-water ports and 13 aerodromes. China has also set its sights on the Arctic for access to new trade routes and new energy resources. In Europe, it is Norway that holds the record for exploratory licence applications in the Barents Sea, although not all Norwegians agree with this course of action. Finally, Repsol — according to Greenpeace Spain — is ready to violate the moratorium established by Obama and drill in the sea off Alaska, in the United States.
Drilling platforms do not always belong to oil companies. More often than not, the latter rely on specialist suppliers, known as contractors. Contractors are companies, generally listed on the stock exchange, that invest in drilling equipment and lease it to oil companies, which use it in the reservoir areas. In addition to the installation, the contractor also provides the crew, from the captain to the sailors, as well as, naturally, the team of workers responsible for drilling and the technicians who manage them. The hydrocarbons extracted do not belong to the contractor, but to the client — that is, the oil company.
Among the main contractors, the following can be cited:
While the main oil companies are:
But there are also those who have abandoned drilling altogether. Such is the case of the Rockefeller Family, when a year ago they declared their intention to divest from oil drilling as quickly as possible (and one hopes they kept their promise).
On the occasion of the referendum on offshore drilling held in Italy last year (without reaching the quorum), numerous figures were published regarding the environmental damage that drilling at sea can cause to the marine ecosystem. In particular, Greenpeace, processing data collected by Ispra, demonstrated how the effects of drilling increase the presence of harmful substances for marine organisms in the sea, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals such as chromium, nickel, lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic.
According to data processed by Greenpeace published in the report Trivelle fuorilegge, hazardous chemical substances exceed the legal parameters in sediments and mussels in the Adriatic, where around thirty drilling rigs operate. Many of these substances are capable of moving up the food chain until they reach humans: the results show that approximately 82% of mussel samples collected near the platforms display higher cadmium values than those measured in samples found in the literature.
Read also: Il disastro della Deepwater Horizon. Cosa è successo, le cause e i responsabili
Around a hundred drilling rigs operate in Italian waters, but no monitoring data have been provided for 70 per cent of the platforms by the Ministry of the Environment. Not only that: Greenpeace also denounces the ambivalent role of Ispra (Istituto superiore per la protezione e la ricerca ambientale), which on the one hand acts as an independent body on behalf of the ministry, assessing the results of spot analyses carried out on offshore platforms; and on the other, having won the tender to carry out environmental monitoring on behalf of Eni, acts as the executor of sampling, the chemical and physical analyses required under the monitoring plans, and the drafting of technical reports, on behalf of the main energy company active in offshore oil extraction.
On 3 April the Italian government returned to the subject: according to environmental movements, the Ministry of Economic Development introduced a mechanism that would allow oil companies holding concessions within 12 miles of the coast already granted to modify, and therefore expand, their original development programme in order to recover other existing reserves, and thus build new wells and new platforms. For Legambiente, Greenpeace and Wwf it is extremely serious that the government should proceed in this way on such a sensitive issue, excluding Parliament and taking absolutely no account of the very clear will expressed by 15 million Italians despite the failure to reach the quorum at the referendum against drilling. The Ministry of Economic Development issued a press release stating that the decree would merely regulate activities already permitted by law.