Impacts on seafloor geology of drilling disturbance in shallow waters

This paper describes the effects of drilling disturbance on the seafloor of the upper continental slope of the Campos Basin, Brazil, as a result of the project Environmental Monitoring of Offshore Drilling for Petroleum Exploration - MAPEM. Field sampling was carried out surrounding wells, operated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental monitoring and assessment 2010-08, Vol.167 (1-4), p.7-16
Main Authors: Corrêa, Iran C. S, Toldo, Elírio E. Jr, Toledo, Felipe A. L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Brazil
Campos Basin
Carbon
Continental slope
Data collection
Disturbances
Drilling
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Ecotoxicology
Environment
Environmental Management
Environmental Monitoring
Geologic Sediments
Geological data collections
Geology
Grain size
Illite
Kaolinite
Marine
Mineral composition
Monitoring/Environmental Analysis
Ocean floor
Offshore drilling
Offshore drilling rigs
Offshore exploration
Oil and gas exploration
Organic carbon
Particle size
Petroleum
Plate tectonics
Sampling
Sea beds
Sediments
Shallow water
Stations
Studies
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Summary:This paper describes the effects of drilling disturbance on the seafloor of the upper continental slope of the Campos Basin, Brazil, as a result of the project Environmental Monitoring of Offshore Drilling for Petroleum Exploration - MAPEM. Field sampling was carried out surrounding wells, operated by the company PETROBRAS, to compare sediment properties of the seafloor, including grain-size distribution, total organic carbon, and clay mineral composition, prior to drilling with samples obtained 3 and 22 months after drilling. The sampling grid used had 74 stations, 68 of which were located along 7 radials from the well up to a distance of 500 m. The other 6 stations were used as reference, and were located 2,500 m from the well. The results show no significant sedimentological variation in the area affected by drilling activity. The observed sedimentological changes include a fining of grain size, increase in total organic carbon, an increase in gibbsite, illite, and smectite, and a decrease in kaolinite after drilling took place.
ISSN:0167-6369
1573-2959
DOI:10.1007/s10661-010-1519-z