Catastrophic environmental disasters

The worldwide exploration and shipment of crude oil and petroleum products have led to a number of catastrophic environmental disasters. A wealth of information exists on these events however, long-term consequences are poorly understood. In addition, the processing and utilization of coal and petroleum fuels invariably lead to low levels of pollution in the terrestrial and marine environment by a variety of molecules including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Pollution occurs at different levels which can either be acute or chronic. TTie effects of the latter are the most difficult to discern. 

More than 2 million miles of pipeline in the United States are used to transport natural gas, crude oil, petroleum products, and other petrochemicals economically and efficiently over long distances. These steel pipelines can be subjected to corrosive conditions both internally (from the aggressive fluids being transported) and externally (from the a ressive soil or subsea environments). The catastrophic failure of an oil or gas pipeline can result in loss of life and environmental disasters. In United States, more incidents/accidents in pipeline systems are due to human intervention, followed by external and internal corrosion.The U.S. Depart-... 

Environmentally hazardous projects are those where the risk of accidents is very high, which can result in a major and sometimes even catastrophic chemical pollution of the environment. Frequently, these disasters take casualties among the plant personnel, as well as among the nearby settlements population, which were the cases with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, or with the pesticide plant accident in Bhopal, India. 

Servers should be located in secure locations subject to appropriate environmental controls and protected against risks of flooding, fire, etc. Business Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery Plans should be in place to manage catastrophic events. Such plans should be periodically tested. 

Environmental impact It is undeniable that the environmental impact of the disaster was catastrophic. The oil spiU lasted for about 87 days before it was stopped. An independent analysis indicated that the total spilled oil was around 185 million gallons plus another 33.8 million gallons that were captured by BP. As a result, hundreds of miles of shoreline were oiled and large areas of the sea were closed to fishermen. Moreover, wildlife was affected by the oil spill thousands of birds, fish, turtles and marine mammals were killed. 

For example, accidents such as the Piper Alpha disaster [1] clearly illustrate that a highly complex sociotechnological system performance is dependent upon the interaction of human, technical, organizational, social, environmental, and managerial elements. More clearly, all these factors or elements can be very important cocontributors to incidents that could result in catastrophic events. Thus, this chapter presents various important aspects of human factors contribution to accidents in the oil and gas industry and fatalities in the industry. 

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