Assessing and Reporting Potential Environmental Risks Associated with Reefing Oil Platform During Decommissioning in Qatar

Abstract

Decommissioning obsolete oil platforms in the upcoming decades in Qatar, through a complete removal, will imply a major loss of the fouling biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions and services. The rig-to-reef approach, successfully implemented in other seas of the world, provides an attractive alternative to the complete removal by reefing the underwater oilrig structures and theoretically provides positive environmental, economic, and social benefits to a wide range of stakeholders. This manuscript critically reports and analyzes the risks associated with the implementation of the rig-to-reef approach in Qatar oilfields by using a DPSIR conceptual framework focusing on the pressures, states, impacts, and responses. By portraying reefing approaches as an issue, several pressures were identified including potential navigational safety issue, pollution, and physical disturbances. These pressures are expected to modify the physical, biological, and chemical state of the ecosystems, potentially leading to several impacts, such as the loss of habitats, biodiversity, and associated ecosystem services. The identified hazards and their potential risks were analyzed, and these seemed to be outweighed by the potential benefits of reefing obsolete oil platforms. Nevertheless, the critical impairment to the rig-to-reef implementation, mainly associated to existing regulatory frameworks, should be addressed.