Diretrizes e boas práticas ambientais para o descomissionamento de plataformas de petróleo e gás offshore do Brasil

Abstract

The operations and consequently the environmental licensing of the offshore oil and gas industry take place in several countries around the world. Oil and gas companies thus face the challenge of meeting the world's expanding energy demands by trying to minimize the negative externalities associated with these operations from their planning phase through to decommissioning. Decommissioning of these activities may occur due to technical conditions, resource depletion or economic unfeasibility. In Brazil the laws and regulations related to this stage are strictly technical and do not give specificity to environmental issues. The purpose of this paper is to propose guidelines and good environmental practices for decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms in Brazil based on experiences from the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States. For this, a literature review was conducted on the themes: Sustainable Development, Environmental Impact and general characteristics of the offshore oil and gas industry in Brazil. Then through the case study on the environmental licensing of the countries: United Kingdom, Norway and the United States, by searching the websites of the agencies responsible for these processes in the countries, reading articles, dissertations, theses and technical reports, 11 guidelines were proposed and good environmental practices for decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms in Brazil based on examples of procedures performed at this stage in the analyzed countries. Thus, it was inferred that, unlike the Brazilian reality, the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States, the world's largest offshore oil and gas producers, are concerned and place great emphasis on environmental issues before, during and after decommissioning. Note the need for Brazil to rely on international issues to improve the conditions for the decommissioning stage.