Decommissioning of Mature Oil Fields and Artisanal Fisheries: The Case of Todoso

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Henrique de Barros1, Marise Paranaguá2, Viviane Almeida3, Mauro Melo Junior4 and Patricia Ribeiro4

1. DLCH-Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife 52171-900, Brazil

2. Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife 52171-900, Brazil

3. Secretaria de Meio Ambiente, Prefeitura do Recife 50030-230, Brazil

4. UAST-Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife 52171-900, Brazil

Received: June 8, 2011 / Accepted: July11, 2011 / Published: January 20, 2012.

Abstract: Consequences of decommissioning oil fields on artisanal fishing activities are still little known in the literature. This paper is intended to shed some light on a process of dismantling and sinking of oil and gas structures in shallow waters, with severe disturbing impacts on low income artisanal fishing activities. From a socio-economic perspective, the relationship of oil industry with local communities is described, with the main perceived problems pointed out in local fishermen leadership perspective. The notions of“damages” and “mitigation” used by the oil industry are discussed in connection to the expansion and dismantling of oil installations during the past 20 yrs. A comparative view of oil fields decommissioning in Europe and Brazil during the late 1990s suggests the need to review transparency and social commitment standards which have been far less prominent in this Brazilian case. The authors believe that the Brazilian oil industry has acquired a social and environmental debt towards the whole society, as far as it has been unable to establish a clear and effective process for decommissioning their oil installations within the artisanal fishing areas of the Todosos Santos Bay. Furthermore, the discussion of fair and specific compensations has been avoided, which otherwise would be instrumental to regain local economic conditions found among fishermen just few decades ago.

Key words: Decommissioning oil fields, mature oil fields, environmental damages, fishing communities, Todosos Santos Bay.

1. Introduction??

Minimizing negative social and environmental impacts of oil production has become a growing concern for the industry and the general society over the last years. Although major disasters have been symbolic to the environmental threaten caused to the general society by the oil industry, we consider small cumulative events through long term periods as responsible for worsen living conditions in production areas in Northeast Brazil. Taking as an example the region of the Todosos Santos Bay, close to Salvador, in the state of Bahia, the pioneering character of the exploration techniques carried out for five decades are now deeply imprinted in both physical and social environments. In particular, local fishing communities have been reduced to almost complete indigence, in sharp contrast with the affluence displayed by the petroleum activities in the area.

From the late 1990s, the decommissioning of the Dom Jo?o Mar oil field has aggravated working conditions of fishers, as severe restrictions have been imposed to the artisanal fishing activities and the catching of mollusks and crustacean on the northeast of the Todosos Santos Bay. Added to other events provoked by the oil industry—in particular the launching of pipelines over fishing grounds—we perceive a perverse trend connecting the expansion of oil activities in the bay to the declining of living conditions of professional fishers, men and women, in the region.

fisheries have been generally acknowledged in recent government policy papers as factors necessarily affected by activities of surveillance, perforation, and production of oil onshore and offshore [1]. These impacts may vary from damages to natural habitats and the fleeing of species to the killing of critical rings of the aquatic food chain. In spite of this recognition, recent proposals by the Brazilian industry have limited mitigation measures to the information to fishermen about the nature of the oil projects and the monitoring of impacts on affected fishing stocks [2].

Environmental Impact Studies released during the last 10 years for the Todosos Santos Bay as well as a recent blueprint paper for the Brazilian petroleum industry (2007) do not propose adequate compensations for fishermen communities affected by restrictions imposed to their professional activities. Also, contingency plans for the decommissioning of mature oil fields, such as the Dom Mar, entrenched well in the middle of an artisanal fishing ground, has not become reality.

In this paper, we discuss the most prominent events produced by the oil industry since the starting of Brazilian oil exploration, by the early 1950s, and their impacts on working conditions of estuarine communities of the Todosos Santos Bay. As relations between industry and local fishermen have deteriorated over recent years we propose an urgent revision of attitudes by industry to regain prestige and to promote a positive impact of oil exploration into the local depressed economies.

Fisheries declining as oil fields mature In the Todosos Santos Bay.

A field survey conducted from 2002-2004 has revealed the bleak conditions of the fishing activities in the oil production area. According to most the fishermen interviewed, fishing conditions have deteriorated since the abandon of the oil field exploration, late in the 1990s. The apparent paradox is explained by the maintenance granted to the oil installations during normal operations and the fact that the oil rigs always works as artificial reefs to attract marine life. According to one the local interviewees:

“In my opinion, the Petrobras works has disgraced the canal; on the first years of fishing there was no pollution; there was plenty of fish and crustaceous. Today there are no more fish and crustaceous as used before. Firstly, Petrobras caused the first damages. Drilling was performed with GM motors, too noisy. After drilling the hole, the ‘base’ got oil. The pipelines shaken during production; which fish wants to stay around? After abandon the oil field, Petrobras finished with us: fishing nets started to stick in the iron wreckage.”

The last part of the above testimony mentioned the impact of decommissioning the oil field after it became unprofitable late in the 1990s, as overvalued Brazilian currency reduced imported oil prices. By this time, international pressure towards tougher environmental regulations was reflected on the imposition of environmental licensing for oil activities by the Brazilian government. However, the decommissioning of a pioneer oil field such as the Dom Joao Mar was a new situation still to be included in the new regulations. More than 10 years later, licensing to decommissioning activities is yet to be officialized.

According to local testimonies, decommissioning of the Dom Joao Mar oil field was executed by cutting the poles which supported the rigs just below sea level, allowing the sinking of the aerial structures of seven concrete platforms and about 600 oil and gas rigs (Fig. 1). The remaining underwater structures, consisting of oil pipelines, remain sunk, dangerously hidden just below sea level. These old structures, although maintaining a function as attractors for marine life, have systematically damaged fishing nets as they stay concealed on murky waters with no signs to indicate their presence underwater. This situation has persisted for already 10 years (1997 to 2007) as no solution has been offered by the industry for the clearance of the debris.

The remaining of the abandon oil structures on the sea bed contravene an IMO-International Marine Organization international convention signed by the Brazilian government in 1989, agreeing on the clearance of decommissioned oil fields in waters less than 75 meters deep. According to the A 672 Resolution, in both offshore and continental waters,“3.1 All abandoned or disused installations or structures standing in less than 75 m of water and weighing less than 4,000 tons in air, excluding the deck and superstructure, should be entirely removed”[3].

Claims that marine life is disappearing from the bay waters come from most communities of the region. Oil exploration, construction of two pipelines crossing the bay, a large oil terminal operating right on the middle of the bay, as well as a large oil refinery complex built in the early 1950s, are some of the events, which combined, are leading to the decay of fisheries and aggravating living conditions among local fisher, men and women.

A consequence of the demising of fisher profession has been the self-commiseration of the fishermen, regretting their sufferings and lamenting that urban people don’t see them as the ones who work hard to feed the cities from the seas.

Fig. 1 Oil rig left as testimony of the Dom Jo?o Mar oil field, near S?o Francisco do Conde, Bahia. About 600 of these structures were cut and most sunk in the shallow waters of the bay about ten years ago (October 2007).

Fig. 2 Fishing nets used by artisanal fishers of the Todosos Santos bay (October 2007).

A condition which reinforces the hardships of fishermen from Sao Francisco do Conde and reduces their chances to overcome the cumulative impacts of oil activities is the technical stage of artisanal fishing in the region. Their canoes are primitively wood carved from a single tree log, which make them too unstable to reach areas beyond the limits of the oil field. This confines them to fishing very close to their communities, on the bay shores, while cleaner areas are available for those capable to meet the risks of crossing the bay away from the production area. To date, since the starting of oil exploration, 60 years ago, no initiatives to improve technology among fishermen have surfaced.

The declining of sea and mangrove catches leaves few employment alternatives for families. A number of men and women have become part-time fishers, most of time working on small professional jobs, such as plumbers, woodcrafters, housemaids etc.. A politically biased employment in the local municipality has also become an alternative for many people, the payroll funded by the oil royalties, which has turned Sao Francisco into one of largest budgets in the whole country. The municipal budget is in sad contrast with the destitute of most of its population, especially those who depend on the sea (Fig. 2).

Housing among fishermen are precarious, 30% of the interviewees residing on clay made ones, thatched with coconut leaves. For 40% of them, there are no bathrooms, the necessities done in the woods around.

Gas stoves are owned by 83%, although daily cooking is done always in a charcoal / wood burner as gas hasbecome increasingly expensive for them. Gathering has been mentioned by fishermen as an unavoidable threat to mangrove and the remaining native vegetation around communities.

Overfishing has become a natural consequence of the lack of alternatives to local fishers. The tragedy of commons’ approach suggests that fishermen will not stop fishing while their comrades are still coming to the sea. In the well-known Hardin’s perspective,“…the only sensible course (…) to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another.... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit—in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all” [4].

In the case of todosos Santos Bay, the character of“commons” is aggravated by the combination of long term degradation of resources and the restrictions imposed to fishers by the dismantling and sinking of the oil structures. As fisheries productivity declines, more effort is applied by local fishermen into the sea. Blast fishingwith homemade explosives is becoming frequent within the area despite condemnation and the risk of imprisonment by authorities.

Traditional artisanal fishing grounds affected by oil extraction or transportation include: (1) the bay waters, in special the areas closer to the old oil structures, turned into artificial reefs which attracted marine life over the last 50 years; (2) sand banks, submersed in high tides, where mollusks are collected by women, and (3) mangroves, traditional habitats of crustaceous and mollusks. Altogether, these places have being affected by oil spills, disturbances of the sea bed, drilling and their lubricating muds1, and digging out sand banks to install pipelines.

All these events combined were likely responsible for fisheries decreasing productivity over the last 60 years. The following sections detail the activities of the oil industry in the region and their impacts on fishing.?

2. A Review of Oil Industry Activities with Impacts on Fisheries in the Todosos Santos Bay

From the beginning of oil exploration, in the early 1950s, the oil activities in the bay waters affecting fisheries can be summarized as:

Surveying and drilling, of temporary impact;

Oil and gas extraction in mangrove and bay waters lasting more than 50 years;

Oil terminal operations, during more than 60 years, with at least two major oil leaks;

Decommissioning of the oil field, starting around 14 years ago (1997);

Installation of a multiple pipeline on the early 1990s (gas and liquid fuels), with recognized temporary and permanent impacts;

Installation of an underwater gas pipeline(Manati), on 2003, with documented impacts such as damaging crustaceous sand banks and restrictions to fishing activities;

Restarting oil extraction in the Dom Joao Mar oil field, from 2007, including the building of concrete islands on the mangrove to support diagonal drilling into the sea bed.

We argue that cumulative effects are rarely considered by industry, as impact studies are mainly focused on the new project, hardly incorporating additional effects on a biota already weakened by earlier events.

Seismic surveys are recognized for their real and potential damages to marine life, whether of permanent or temporary character. The process consists of canons firing air pulses which produce compression waves aimed to reflect into the rock layers of sea bottom [2]. Main impacts are pointed as restrictions to fishing in the study areas, as well as acoustic perturbation to marine life, in particular cetaceous, Sirenia (manatees), fishes, turtles, cephalopods, crustaceous and plankton. Damages to these species are reported to be temporary [5]. However, more vulnerable primary rings of the aquatic food chain are reported to suffer permanent damage, such as eggs, larvae and juveniles [2-4]. The account of these losses on fisheries is yet to be provided by environment impact assessments2?. Seismic surveys of the Dom Joao Mar field were carried out early on the 1950-1960s, in the initial stages of oil exploration.

Drilling of a shallow water oil field involve a number of operations capable to interfere on the characteristics of sea floor and sea water, with effects on marine life and reproduction. Among recognized impacts of drilling are the wasting of gravel and the fluids needed for the perforation. Only from the year 2000, a Brazilian Federal Law prohibited gravel discharging in surfaces under 60 meters deep, which includes the Todosos Santos Bay.

International literature acknowledges that drilling mud is one of the most dangerous wastes for marine environment. To improve lubricating capacity of the drilling heads, a variety of oils have been used, including diesel oil, toxic for marine life. The impact of drilling mud on the aquatic ecosystem is proportional to the volume used in drilling, estimated on 1,000 to 5,000 m3 per well [6]. For the Dom Joao Mar oil field, local information suggests a number of wells between 500 and 600, in a sea depth below 10 meters. An aggravating condition is the low renovation capacity of water in the area, as it’s located at the bottom of the bay, far from the open sea. As an estuarine environment, the area is covered by mangroves which nest a rich variety of coastal life, especially Crustacea and Mollusca, which used to represent an important part of local income and dietary needs for local communities. Both classes of marine life are recognized as highly sensitive to temporary bioaccumulation of oil components [7]. Only since the 1980s, the industry began using less toxic compounds for drilling muds, incorporating vegetal oils, less aggressive to marine life [6].

Another risk to the ecosystem has been the waste water produced during the oil extraction process. To keep the pressure of the well and force the oil and gas out, sea water is injected into the wells. The amount of water neededincreases as the oil lower, becoming an indicator of the maturity of the oil field.

“The expression ‘production water’ designates a chemical effluent combining the formation water, injection water and chemical additives. The more mature becomes an oil field, more water will be produced, since the water inflow has to be progressively raised, to keep the reservoir pressure” [2].

A study commissioned by Brazilian industry on the impacts of offshore drilling in depths 10 times of those of Todosos Santos Bay, and in open sea conditions, recognized alterations on sediments and on the benthic community of the sampled area [2-14]. Recent analyses of sediments from mangroves and from the neighborhood of the Madre de Deus oil terminal, where production and transportation has been active over the last 60 years, found significant levels of contamination from hydrocarbons related to the oil extracted from the bay fields. Samples from the 2003 study provided evidence of “the presence of petrol and their compounds in the mangrove ecosystem, characterizing a scenery of pollution by organic compounds associated to the petroleum complex” [8].

3. Proposals for Mitigation of Environmental Damages

From the early 1990s, some large initiatives were carried out to expand and modernize activities of oil transportation from production fields to the large RELAM refinery located right at the bay shores, at closing distance from the Dom Joao Mar oil field. These contracts commissioned environmental assess studies in compliance with government licensing legislation. We argue that, in spite of the acknowledgment of environmental damages, both actual and potential, those studies failed to propose adequate compensation to the significant losses imposed to local fishing communities in the short and the long run.

This situation is probably connected to the low level of bargain power developed by fishers since the oil industry was established in the region. A general interpretation for the country as a whole suggests that fishermen have been unable to reach a level of organization able to successfully negotiate with the petroleum industry [9]. As a result, the compensations have always been connected to specific losses from large oil spills, and granted by justice after 10 years of fighting [10].

In the case of Todosos Santos bay, mitigation measures proposed by environmental assessments are generally intended to bring education programs to affected communities addressing issues such as:

Information on the industry activities in the region;

Information on measures taken by the oil industry to control pollution;

Fishing courses for fishermen, considering the“spawn calendar and local fishing techniques” [11];

Health education;

Courses on “impacts of industrialization on the environment”.

These mitigation measures would be conducted by means of “education pamphlet distribution, oral presentations, short courses in schools and churches, video presentations etc.” [11].In all cases, mitigation measures provided no compensation to fishermen for their lost income, in temporary or permanent terms, associated with the changes raised by oil industry on their fishing grounds.

The low bargain power argument, above proposed, is consistent with the fact that early in 2002 the state of Bahia daily newspapers have publicized the condition of the fishermen concerning the Dom Joao Mar sunk structures, with no visible solution for the situation [12, 13]. Five years later, in 2007, a solitary small floating crane were collecting debris scattered on the fishing zone seabed with no signs of conclusion for the enormous job (Fig. 3).

The main consequence of the abandon of the structures for fishing is the damages caused to the nets as the structures remain underwater with no signaling of their presence at all. The losses of fishing nets are not properly compensated, as the industry only provide the exact amount of net lost, not accounting for the days fishers are not able to work. This time may amount to five months, according to official documents available in the local fishing colonies.

Oil leakages into the mangroves have also become another consequence of the abandonment of the structures to fishing activities, as the old pipelines have not been properly sealed (Fig. 4).

Fig. 3 The single floating crane responsible for cleaning the old oil structures, with the crew showing nets found entangled in the sunken debris of the Dom Joao Mar oil field (October, 2007).

Fig. 4 Oil leaking from the old abandon structures in the mangrove near S?o Francisco do Conde and leaked oil collected by local fishers (October, 2007).

4. Relationship Practices between Fishermen and the Oil Industry

The central hypothesis in this paper is that attitudes of industry towards local communities contribute to the aggravation of subsistence conditions, leading to increasing predatory using practices by fishers towards the estuarine ecosystem. These attitudes from industry reflect a perception of communities as elements alienated from the oil operations which can be dealing with social communication strategies informing about the essentiality of services being performed. From the communities’ perspective, these programs sound as contradictory and disconnected from the reality facing by families in their working daily life.

After more than 60 years of presence of the oil industry, it is surprising the absence of a single permanent dialog channel allowing the negotiation of preexistent environmental damages to the local communities. The fragility and inconsistency of communications between community and industry seems to indicate that meeting production targets will be always more relevant than resolving incidental damages to the ecosystem caused by oil exploration. This perspective is underlined by the notion that environmental damages are incidental impacts of oil exploration and shall be expected to increase as an oil field gets matured, as stated by the Brazilian government blue paper for the energy industry:

“The most important impacts in this phase [when the reservoir pressure tends to fall and becomes necessary to pump gas and water into the well] are the alteration in the water quality and the marine biota due to the wasting of production water, increasing the country’s hydrocarbon production and the generation of royalties and special sharing [to local governments]” [2].

EIAs-Environmental Impact Studies also reflect a perspective of the Brazilian oil policy which mistakenly regards royalties paid by the oil industry to federal and local governments as social compensations for environmental damages. At local level, the royalties paid to local governments has been used to build social equipment for the communities at large, with no consideration to specific needs of local fishermen directly affected by the oil industry. Indeed, the social realities of production areas demonstrate that too little of royalties have actually managed to trickle down to the benefit of sea workers and their families.

In spite of the technological leadership attained by the Brazilian oil industry, the production areas of Todosos Santos Bay still resents of social compensatory means to regain the output suppressed by, in many cases, inevitable practices of oil exploration activities. Royalties are transferred automatically to the budgets of states and municipalities, to be used in local programs not necessarily, or rarely, as in the case of Todosos Santos Bay, connected to the fishermen. No contribution is given by any level of government to fishermen organizations in the whole country. On the industry side, resources to social programs are transferred to NGOs to be spent in short courses and social activities for fishermen and shellfish women catchers. These activities do not involve direct income transfers to capitalize sea workers.

As a direct consequence of these incipient policies and practices, the technology gap among fishermen expresses all the relationship difficulties between industry and fishermen. The sophistication and cost of the infrastructure and logistic used by the industry in their exploration activities sharply contrast with the rudimentary canoes—made from a carved tree and elementary equipment afforded by the artisanal fishers in the region [15].

To date, no contribution by the industry to the technological improvement of the fishing sector has been registered.

5. Conclusions

In general, the Brazilian experience suggests that local communities expect, in connection to the oil industry:

To be recognized as stakeholders deserving attention and respect by government and private sector;

As a signal of this recognition, be informed, timely and properly, about what, when and where changes are going to happen in the local environment where they live or earn their subsistence means;

To be compensated “accordingly” when damages become inevitable;

That channels be created and maintained open between the agents involved in the process of change;

That communication at local levels starts before decisions be made or works initiated;

That communication be held during and specially after the enterprise be concluded;

That communication results in concrete advances in terms of life improvements for communities [15].

During the past 60 years, the practice of relations between the oil industry and fishermen communities has been aggravated by relationship failures able to be rescued in the medium term. This chapter revises some of the events promoted by the industry in the Todosos Santos Bay, and the impacts revealed by field work on local fishing communities.

A review of impacts from oil exploration over the last 60 years suggests the urgency of changing corporative attitudes and practices towards fishers, men and women. Constructive relations for widening opportunities to increase income and the opening of new job opportunities suppressed by the oil industry are urgently needed, in face of the degradation of living conditions among fishermen.

Despite the considerable amount of finance addressed by the oil industry to the governments of the region through royalties, the melting of these resources within local budgets prevent fishermen to earn adequate compensations and increase productivity to regain losses caused by oil related activities on their fishing grounds.

References

[1] Petrobrás, Environmental Impact Report–EIRProduction and Flowing of Natural Gas System, BCAM-40(BAS-128 Area), Biodynamic/GMA, Salvador, 2003. (in Portuguese)

[2] MME, Decennial Plan of Energy Expansion 2007/2016, MME/EPE, Final report, Brasília, DF, 2007. (in Portuguese)

[3] IMO WAG, RESOLUTION A.672(16), in: IMO.WAG, Guidelines and Standards for the Removal of Offshore Installations and Structures on the Continental Shelf and in the Exclusive Economic Zone[Online],www.省略/Safety/mainframe.asp?topic_id=1026,1989. (accessed Oct. 19,1989)

[4] H. Garrett, The tragedy of the commons, Science 162(1968) 1243-1248.

[5] IBAMA, Information ELPN/IBAMA No 012/03: Environmental Impact of Maritime Seismic Prospection, Rio de Janeiro, 2003. (in Portuguese)

[6] S. Patin, Environmental Impact of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry, Ecomonitor Publishing, EastNorth port, New York, 1999.

[7] M. Pedrozoet.allii, Ecotoxicology and risk evaluation of petroleum, CRA/Petrobras/NEAMA, Salvador, 2002. (in Portuguese)

[8] I. Veiga, Evaluation of hydrocarbons origin in superficial sediments of mangroves of the northern area of Todosos Santos Bay/Isa Guimar?es Veiga, MS Dissertation, Macaé: Darcy Ribeiro University/Petroleum Exploration Engineering Laboratory, Campos, RJ, 2003. (in Portuguese)

[9] F. Lopes, The conflict between offshore petroleum exploration and fishing activity, in: Proceedings of the ANPPAS Annual Conference, Brasilia, 2002. (in Portuguese)

[10] Bahia State Justice Department, Affected by oil spill receive compensations from Petrobras, Aug 2004/MTBA690, Public Release, 2004. (in Portuguese)

[11] Petrobras, EIR-Environmental Impact Report of TEMADRE Extension, Salvador, Final report, 1990. (in Portuguese)

[12] Tribuna da Bahia Newspaper, S?o Francisco do Conde: Wreckagesaffectfisheries, Salvador, Mar. 11, 2002. (in Portuguese)

[13] Tribuna da Bahia, Officer testimoniesfishers’ drama, Newspaper, Tribuna da Bahia, Salvador, Mar. 15, 2002.(In Portuguese)

[14] PETROBRAS, Environmental Monitoring of Oil and Gas Perforation Activity in the Campos Basin: Characterization and Monitoring Post-Activity, Final report, Rio de Janeiro, 2003. (in Portuguese)

[15] H. Barros, M. Paranaguá, M.S. Alves, Social Relations Protocols for Recovering of Areas Impacted by Petroleum Activities, Recupetro Network/Proamb/UFBa, Final report, 2005. (in Portuguese)

Corresponding author: Henrique de Barros, associate professor, Ph.D., main research fields: rural development, environmental economics.省略.br.

1 Drilling mud is a special mixture of clay, water, or refined oil, and chemical additives pumped down through the drill pipe and drill bit. The mud cools the speedy rotating bit, lubricates the drill pipe as it turns in the well bore, and carries rock cuttings to the surface.

3 Brazilian environmental legislation imposes detailed environmental assessments ex-ante projects. However, post damaging evaluations are yet to be prescribed by environmental control bodies.