Waste management for offshore oil and gas activities

Environmental protection in mineral exploration, extraction and processing, and petroleum activities

Pursuant to Article 67 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, in which:

- Organizations and individuals engaged in mineral exploration, extraction and processing must have plans for prevention and response to environmental emergencies and comply with the following requirements for environmental protection, improvement and remediation:

+ Collect and treat wastewater as regulated;

+ Collect and dispose of solid wastes in accordance with regulations on solid waste management in Vietnam;

+ To take measures to prevent and limit the emission of dust and exhaust gas and other adverse impacts on the surrounding environment;

+ Having plan for environmental renovation and restoration and conducting the environmental renovation and restoration in mineral extraction activities as prescribed by this Law and regulations of law on mineral;

+ Environmental protection deposits as prescribed in Article 137 of this Law.

- The mineral exploiter must prepare plan for environmental renovation and restoration, including:

+ Projects of investment in mineral extraction;

+ Mineral extraction facilities that operate before the effective date of this Law but have not had any plan for environmental renovation and restoration or have changed contents of environmental renovation and restoration compared with the approved plan;

+ The mineral extraction facility shall operate before the effective date of this Law and have its plan for environmental renovation and restoration approved but the funding is not sufficient to comply with regulations of law.

- Contents of environmental remediation plan:

+ Environmental renovation and restoration solutions; analysis, evaluation and selection of best solution for environmental renovation and restoration;

+ List and volume of items of environmental renovation and restoration for alternative solution;

+ The plan for implementation shall be divided by year and each stage of environmental renovation and restoration; the environmental monitoring program during the environmental renovation and restoration; the plan for inspection and certification of completion of plan;

+ Cost estimate for environmental renovation and restoration for each item of environmental renovation and restoration; deposits as per road map.

- Toxic minerals must be stored and transported by dedicated vehicles and equipment that are protected in a way that avoid leakage and release into the environment.

- The use of machinery and equipment that negatively affect the environment and toxic chemicals in exploration, extraction, mine closure, and mineral processing must be assessed and declared in the application for environmental license.

- Exploration, exploitation, transportation and processing of other minerals containing radioactive substances, toxic or explosive substances must comply with this Law, the law on chemical and atomic energy safety and other relevant laws.

- The Government shall elaborate the formulation and appraisal of plan for environmental renovation and restoration in mineral extraction; stipulate specific requirements for environmental protection in trial operation, waste management in Vietnam and environmental monitoring for exploration, extraction and transport of oil and gas and relevant services at sea.

- The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment shall promulgate forms and technical guidance for implementation of this Article.

Waste management in Vietnam for offshore oil and gas activities

Waste management in Vietnam for offshore oil and gas activities

02/2022/TT-BTNMT, in which, regulations on waste management in Vietnam 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.

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