Development Practices and Achievements for Reducing the Risk of Oilfield Chemicals

摘要

An effective approach to the global issue of chemicalmanagement, based on Gulf Coast and North Sea experiencein wellbore stimulation, is described. This paper presents theresults of aggressive chemical development and replacementprograms for stimulation chemicals for worldwide application.Development of more environmentally acceptable productsrequires working with regulatory agencies, clients, andchemical suppliers to achieve regulatory compliance forMSDS, labels, and environmental testing protocol. This paperrecognizes that international environmental statutes andguidelines combined with clear corporate goals to minimizeenvironmental impact are key requirements in regulatingindustrial use and discharge of environmentally harmfulchemicals. The development of more environmentallyacceptable products requires a thorough screening ofenvironmental fitness and status of compliance with relevantlaws and regulations.Oilfield chemicals have primary active ingredients thatmay be harmful if discharged to the environment. Improvingthe characteristics of these products to reduce risk or damageto marine life requires changes in previously acceptableproducts, such as elimination of restricted materials andincorporation of components with improvedecotoxicity values.Details are given on the aggressive programs developed toaddress a wide range of environmental opportunities andissues. International environmental statutes and guidelines arethe strongest driving force to restrict industrial use anddischarge of environmentally harmful chemicals. The primarytool of environmental risk reduction is an aggressive productdevelopment program incorporating more environmentallyfriendly chemical solutions. The paper will also present threeyears of field results achieved using environmentallyimproved stimulation products.