Assessing the environmental impact of Maersk Oil’s offshore drilling and production activities

We conducted detailed environmental monitoring studies of the seabed for our client – Maersk Oil. Our evaluations helped them assess the environmental impact of their offshore drilling and production activities in the North Sea.

There is a risk of impacting the marine environment when conducting oil and gas operations. As such, environmental authorities in Denmark have set up guidelines to monitor the environmental conditions around oil and gas production platforms. To help Maersk Oil implement these guidelines, we conducted chemical and biological monitoring surveys of the seabed around three of their North Sea platforms: Gorm, Harald and Halfdan.

Using results from a long-term survey programme, we assessed:

• the environmental state around the platforms compared to a reference station
• spatial and temporal changes in the environmental state of the seabed around the platform

First, we collected 180 samples of sediment at approximately 24 stations. Next, we conducted physical and chemical analyses on the samples. We then evaluated the environmental state around Maersk Oil-operated platforms.

Our work enabled Maersk Oil to document their clean environmental record and continue with their North Sea operations.