Abstract

With the rise of the environmental protection movements, the petroleum industry has placed greater emphasis on minimizing the environmental impact of its operations. In the upstream petroleum industry, there are two major operations that can potentially impact the environment i.e. Drilling and Production. Both operations generate a significant volume of wastes. Because of the high costs of noncompliance with the numerous regulations governing the industry and the high costs associated with the loss of public trust for damaging the environment, substantial resources must be dedicated to minimizing environmental impact. As the authors are engaged in drilling operations at the well-site, environmental impacts during drilling operations are only discussed here with their mitigation measures.