Waste management for offshore oil and gas activities

Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT, in which, regulations on waste management of offshore oil and gas operations shall be applied as follows:

- Classification, collection, storage and management of non-hazardous waste generated by offshore petroleum works:

+ Daily-life solid waste and ordinary industrial solid waste are collected and classified into 03 groups, including: Food waste, scrap group for recycling and the rest of normal waste;

+ Group of food wastes discharged into the sea after crushing to dimensions of less than 25 mm;

+ Common waste which is wood, paper or cardboard burned to ensure the compliance with regulations of law on fire prevention and fighting. Ash after being combusted and discharged into the sea;

+ Group of scraps for recovery, recycling and the rest of normal wastes must be collected and transported ashore.

- Classification, collection and storage of hazardous waste at offshore oil and gas facilities:

+ Hazardous wastes must be classified by hazardous nature;

+ Hazardous waste of the same hazardous nature, the same treatment method and without reaction shall be stored in the same sealed equipment or device;

+ Equipment, tools containing hazardous waste must have clear labels to identify types of waste collected.

- Management of drilling rigs and drilling fluids arising from offshore petroleum exploration and extraction:

+ Dry sludge and water-base drilling fluids arising in oil and gas exploration and extraction activities are discharged into sea areas more than 3 nautical miles away from the mainland;

+ Non-aquerous drilling mud generated in petroleum exploration and extraction activities may only be emitted into the sea when the content of non-aquerous fluids contained in drilling foils does not exceed the permissible value prescribed in the national technical regulation on drilling fluids and drilling mud from offshore petroleum works and the location of exhaustion from the coast, the boundary of aquaculture area, fishery protection area, water recreation area is greater than 12 nautical miles; the non-aquerous drilling fluid used for petroleum exploration and extraction must be transported to another drilling campaign or transferred to the hazardous waste treatment service provider for treatment;

+ The use of non-aquerous drilling fluids shall be subject to environmental technical regulations adopted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

- Wastewater discharged from offshore petroleum works must be collected and treated in accordance with the technical regulations on environment of wastewater discharged from offshore petroleum works.

- Floor-washing water, technological equipment and oil-contaminated compartments are managed as follows:

+ Collect and treat in accordance with the environmental technical regulation on industrial wastewater before discharging it at a location less than 03 nautical miles away from the shore;

+ Collection and treatment of ship pollution in accordance with Annex I of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (hereinafter referred to as Marpol Convention)

- Daily-life wastewater shall be managed as follows:

+ Collect and treat domestic wastewater under the environmental technical regulation before discharging it in a position less than 03 nautical miles away from the shore;

+ Collect and treat in accordance with Annex IV of the Marpol Convention before discharging it in a location that is 3 to 12 nautical miles away from the shore;

+ Collecting and discarding into the sea at the location more than 12 nautical miles away from the shore.

Anh Duy

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