TOTAL E & P Indonesia (TOTAL) retained PT Hatfield Indonesia (Hatfield Indonesia) to conduct an environmental risk assessment (ERA) and an environmental monitoring survey in the Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Environmental Risk Assessment
TOTAL have developed new oily water treatment facilities in the Mahakam Delta, to ensure that produced water, which is a by-product of oil production activities, can be discharged into the Mahakam River. The environmental risk assessment (ERA) assesses the fate and behaviour of produced water constituents, to determine if the potential impacts on the aquatic environment or human health. The ERA also supports TOTAL’s commitment to comply with updated provincial environmental regulations.
Hatfield undertook sampling design, sample collection, and additional data gathering needed for the ERA, including:
- River and produced water and sediment chemistry;
- In-situ water quality;
- Benthic communities assemblages;
- Plankton assemblages;
- Sublethal toxicity testing on produced water samples, using three representative test species; and
- Socio-economic and human exposure data though surveys of local villages.
Under an ERA framework, various data have been integrated into a comprehensive assessment of risks to ecological organisms and humans in the area of the produced water discharge.
Environmental Monitoring Survey
The monitoring survey is being conducted in order to document potential impacts to estuarine and marine benthic organisms from the drilling and operation of historical and active oil production wells in the Mahakam Delta. The comprehensive monitoring survey includes more than 100 sites in representative locations, including sediment sampling using a box corer to determine benthic community assemblages and sediment chemistry, and water sampling to determine water quality. Specifically, the sampling design for the monitoring survey aims to determine whether factors such as well age, drilling mud type, and geographic environment have an influence on the potential environment impacts. The environmental monitoring survey is part of TOTAL’s commitment to understand the potential impacts of oil production at their facilities throughout the world.
