Background

Global offshore oil and gas (OOG) production is rapidly expanding to meet increasing energy demand. Since the offshore environment is sensitive, attention is increasingly devoted to environmental issues associated with OOG operations. In general, environmental impacts caused by OOG operations include chronic impacts caused by regular waste discharge or atmospheric emissions and acute impacts caused by large-scale accidental blowouts or spills. There is a growing need for modeling and management approaches to minimize the risks caused by OOG production to marine environment, coastal communities, and human health.

Objectives and Areas

Researchers in SREG aim to develop innovative methodologies and technologies to handle environmental problems and support sound decision-making in OOG operations. Main research areas include:

1. Development of new tools for monitoring and modeling of marine pollution;
2. Ecological or human health risk assessment for oil spilled in marine environment, especially in harsh environment;
3. Development of enhanced response techniques, modeling and decision support tools for controlling oil spill and minimizing its impacts on human health and the environment; and  
4. Development of Environmental Management System (EMS) for OOG operations.

Principal Research Lead:

Faisal Khan

Research/Team Lead:

Ming Yang

Related Publications since 2010:

1. Yang, M., Khan, F., Garaniya, V., Chai, S., Multimedia Fate Modeling of Oil Spills in Ice-infested Waters: an Exploration of the Feasibility of Fugacity-based Approach, Process Safety and Environmental Protection (2014), DOI:10.1016/j.psep.2014.04.009.
2. Yang, M., Khan, F., Lye, L., Sulistiyono, H., Dolny, J., Oldford, D. (2013). Risk-based winterization for vessels operating in Arctic environments, Journal of Ship Production and Design.
3. Yang, M., Khan, F., and Lye, L. (2012). Precursor-based hierarchical Bayesian approach for rare event frequency estimation: A case of oil spill accident. Process safety and environmental protection. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2012.07.006
4. Yang, M., Khan, F., Sadiq, R., and Amyotte, P. (2012). A rough set-based game theoretical approach for environmental decision making. Process safety and environmental protection. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2012.05.001
5. Abbassi, R., Dadshzadeh, M., Khan, F., and Hawboldt, K. (2011). Risk-based Prioritization of Indoor Air Pollution Monitoring using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Indoor and Build Environment. DOI: 10.1177/1420326X11428164
6. Yang, M., Khan, F., and Sadiq, R.(2011). Prioritizing Environmental Issues in Offshore Oil and Gas Operations - A Fuzzy Inference System. Journal of Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 89 (1). 22 – 34
7. Yang, M., Khan, F., and Sadiq, R. (2011). Prioritization of environmental issues in offshore oil and gas operations: A hybrid approach using fuzzy inference system and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 89 (1). 22 – 34.
8. Yang, M., Khan, F., Sadiq, R., and Amyotte, P. (2011). A rough set-based quality function deployment (QFD) approach for environmental performance evaluation: a case of offshore oil and gas operations. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol.19 (13), 1513 –1526.
9. Dadashzadeh, M., Khan, F., Hawboldt, K., and Abbassi, R. (2011) Emission Factor Estimation for Oil and Gas Facilities. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 89. 295 – 299
10. Bailey, J., Amyotte, P., and Khan, F. (2010). Agricultural Application of Life cycle analysis index – LInX for effective decision-making. Journal of Cleaner Production,18. 1703-1713.