Environmental effects of the use of oil-based drilling muds in the North Sea

The environmental effects of oil-based drilling mud cuttings have been evaluated using all the data available from monitoring around North Sea platforms. Beneath the platforms making extensive use of oil-based drilling muds the natural sediment is buried by cuttings and the hydrocarbon concentration 250 m from the platforms may be 1000 times background, but the concentration gradient is very steep and background levels are usually reached 2000–3000 m from the platform. The extent of the biological effects appear to be greater from the use of oil-based muds than from water-based muds. Beyond the area of physical smothering the effects of oil-based mud cuttings may be due to organic enrichment or to the toxicity of the aromatic fraction of the oil. Despite the large scale of inputs, in all the fields studied the major deleterious biological effects occurred within 500 m of the platform. Surrounding the area of major impact was a transition zone in which subtle biological effects could be detected as community parameters returned to normal, generally within 400–1000 m. The shape and extent of this zone varied and was largely determined by the current regime and scale of the drilling operation. Elevated hydrocarbon concentrations were detected beyond the areas of biological effects.