The Charm Model Used in Environmental Risk Management of Produced Water On Ula

The offshore exploration and production (E&P) industry is facing increasing costs from meeting its environmental responsibilities. Environmental risk management is therefore becoming an increasingly important issue, especially in view of the discharge of a large number of pollutants potentially harmful to the environment. Environmental risk management is a step-wise process that generally starts with risk analysis of alternative remediation strategies. Through risk analysis the probability of the occurrence of adverse biological effects as a result of exposure to a chemical can be estimated. Fate/risk models are generally applied to predict environmental concentrations. The next steps in the risk management process can cover political decision-making for determination of acceptability criteria and taking risk reducing measures (van Leeuwen et al., 1992). The third step is cost determination of alternative options, and the last step will be a cost/environmental risk benefit comparison.