By Kenya Oil & Gas Sector Sector Working Group
Kenya is currently in the transition stage in Oil and Gas production. This is from exploration to production in blocks 10BB and 13T along the South Lokichar Basin, in Turkana County.
However, with this kind of development, exploration, and production operations have the potential for a variety of environmental, health and social impacts depending on the stage of the process and complexity and size of the project.
In the case of Turkana’s Foundation Stage Development, the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment study should be able to address the impacts of the proposed project to the sensitivity of the surrounding environment as well as the effectiveness of planning pollution prevention, mitigation and control techniques.
However, with proper care and attention, these potential impacts may be mitigated. Since the discovery of commercial quantities of crude oil reserves by Tullow Oil, the nature of the process shifted into a long-term project so as to enable the company to appraise, develop and produce the hydrocarbon reserves.
In order to enable the Joint Venture Partners, achieve first oil, they need to assess the potential impacts by considering the geographical scale over which they might occur.
Similarly, it will be important to consider the perception and magnitude of potential impacts, which will frequently depend on the subjective interpretation of acceptability or significance.
Consultation, negotiation, and understanding will be vital in addressing concerns and grievances and will assist in moving from the position of confrontation, dependence or isolation
among stakeholders to positions of mutually agreed and understood interdependence between
stakeholders.
The Foundation Stage Development of the South Lokichar fields is likely to induce environmental, economic, social and cultural changes. The extent of these changes is especially important to the local groups particularly the indigenous Turkana people who may have their traditional lifestyle affected.
The key impacts may include changes in land-use patterns such as pastoralism as a direct consequence (land acquisition and exclusion) or as a secondary consequence by providing new pastoral migratory routes, leading to unplanned settlements and exploitation of natural resources beyond the Twiga, Ngamia and Amosing sites.
Population influx as a result of immigration and in-migration due to increased access to opportunities; sociocultural systems such as social structure, organization, and cultural heritage, practices, and beliefs, and secondary impacts such as effects on natural resource, rights of access, and change in value systems influenced by foreigners; aesthetics, because of unsightly or noisy facilities.
Transportation systems due to the increased road and air infrastructure and associated effects e.g. noise, accident risks, increased maintenance requirements or change in existing services.
Furthermore, as Project Oil Kenya proceeds towards field development of the South Lokichar oil fields, it is important to understand the sources and nature of emissions and their relative contribution to atmospheric impacts, both local and those related to global issues such as stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.
Flaring, combustion processes such as diesel engines, fugitive gases from loading operations and tankage, airborne particulates from soil disturbance during construction and from vehicle traffic and particulates from other burning sources, such as well testing.
During production, with more intensive activity at the Ngamia, Twiga and Amosing sites, increased levels of emissions will occur in the immediate vicinity of the project site.
Whereas flaring may occur on occasion as a safety measure, during start-up, maintenance or upset in the normal processing operations, flaring of produced gas continues and will continue to be the most significant source of air emissions in the first six years of production
in the south Lokichar fields; where Project Oil Kenya has openly admitted they have no infrastructure or market available for the gas due to the relatively low quantities.
Due to its simplicity, land-filling of waste in pits at drilling and production sites has been a popular means of waste disposal in the past. Historically, pits have been used for the burial of inert, non-recyclable materials and drilling solids; evaporation and storage of produced water,
workover/completion fluids; emergency containment of produced fluids; and the disposal of stabilized wastes.
However, the risks associated with pollutant migration pathways can damage soils and usable water resources (both surface and groundwater), if seepage and leaching are not contained.
Furthermore, access to land-fill liners by communities living adjacent to the project sites such as Twiga to cover their manyattas has posed potentially dangerous health impacts from the heavy metals as a result of drilling.
The position of the Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group on the South Lokichar field development to Project Oil Kenya is that:
1. Focus on procedures and technologies to minimize emissions as a result of continued flaring.
2. Need for proper consultation, negotiation, understanding, and partnership with stakeholders particularly community groups.
3. Emissions from production operations should be viewed in the context of total emissions from all sources and should fall below 1 percent of regional and global levels.
4. Reducing the need for flaring through integrated development and providing markets for all products by applying techniques for improving performance with emerging technologies and best industry practice.
5. Utilization of water-based drilling fluids that have been demonstrated to have only limited effects on the environment as compared to oil-based drilling fluids which have an increased effect due to toxicity and redox potential.
6. Consideration of cost-effective waste treatment options such as land farming and land spreading taking into consideration proper assessment, engineering, design operation, and monitoring.
7. Incorporation of preventative techniques such as segregated and contained drainage systems for process areas including sumps and oil traps, leak minimization and drip pans in the facility design of the Central Facilities Area to remove any potential impacts arising from small spills and leakage on site.
8. Undertake comprehensive risk evaluation and management of the field development plan in order to identify hazards, consequences, the magnitude of consequences and probability of consequences thus managing risks that may arise.
The Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group is a platform for constructive stakeholder engagement, and knowledge management contributing to good governance and sustainable development of the oil and gas sector.
