Oil and gas industry - Essay Example

Effect of the Oil and Gas Industry on the Environment The oil and gas sector is one of the leading industries across theglobe. Its revenues are enormous, so are the costs of giving the consumers with the energy they need. America consumes more than 19million oil barrels every daily (Scholastic and Crane 9). The oil and gas sector supplies more than 60 percents of the nation’s energy. It also plays a crucial part of the American economy. The U.S is among the leading producers of oil globally (Vassiliou 70).

As of 2011, the sector accounted for 12.2 percent of the gross domestic product. As production and consumption increases, its effects are also felt on the environment. The environment is a crucial component for the survival of living organisms. To that effect, the paper will discuss the impact of the oil and gas industry on the environment. First, the operations in the oil and gas sector lead to water pollution by means of oil spills and by products. Spills can occur both on land and sea. As noted by Taylor (295), there has been evidence of oil spills on the American coastline and adjacent countries.

Oil spills in the marine environment kills the aquatic ecosystem. Scholastic and Crane (6) claim that the Deepwater Horizon Spill at the Gulf of Mexico was the worst in U.S History where more than 250,000 barrels of oil spilled into the ocean. It affected a huge population of the marine life. The same applies for land spills. The oil damages the surface vegetation. Spills may take up from months to years to clean up. Second, the petroleum industry is the largest industrial source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the United States.

As cited by Barker (45), these are groups of chemicals that form the ground level ozone. This results in global warming as the ozone reflects the heat from the earth’s warming up the earth because the VOCs lead to the formation of zone. Ozone traps heat in the atmosphere leading to global warming. Third, crude oil contains a mixture of numerous organic compounds that are extremely toxic and cause cancer. The presence of benzene in crude oil results in leukemia in humans. In the same way, the concentration of oil at 4000 parts per million promptly kills the fish (Prasad and Kumari 29).

Next, the oil and gas industry pollute the air. The burning of the oil products produces greenhouse as well as other pollutants. Some of the air pollutants include nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, heavy metals, and VOCs. The incomplete burnt compounds results in fine particles of soot that have been found to cause respiratory problems in humans when inhaled from the environment. Equally important, the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to climate change because the gas traps heat in the atmosphere.

The other environmental effect of the gas and oil industry operations is water pollution. Combustion of oil products produces nitrogen and sulphur compounds. When these compounds combine with water in the atmosphere they form acidic rain. For example, nitrogen gas oxidizes and form nitrogen oxide and when it combines with water it forms nitrous acid. This acidic rain causes numerous problems like acidification of water sources killing the aquatic organisms and burning of the surface vegetation.

The acidic rain also corrodes the structures together with machinery. The same applies to suphur that forms sulphorous acid (Garverick 292-293). Nitrogen also contributes to eutrophication; an increase of nutrients in the environments causing algal blooms and other aquatic plants. Sixth, there is noise pollution caused by the equipments used in the petroleum sector from exploration to consumption (Mariano and La-Rovere 4). Finally, considering that oil and gas are natural resources, the industry is faced with an eventual depletion of their supply in near future.

A statistical review carried out in 2012 by BP reported that the predicted running out of oil in the U.S is between 8 to 17 years. In summary, the oil and gas sector has various potential hazards in the environment. It negatively affects the water, soil, and air, as well as all living organisms on the earth’s surface. The major effect of the petroleum industry is pollution from exploration, production, and consumption. Works CitedBarker, John Roger. Progress and problems in atmospheric chemistry.

New York: World Scinetific, 1995. Print.Garverick, Linda. Corrosion in the petrochemical industry. New York: ASM International, 1994. Print.Mariano, Jacqueline and Emilio La-Rovere. Environmental im[acts of the oil industry. http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c08/e6-185-18.pdf>. Web. 1999. Accessed April 27, 2015.Scholastic, Mona Chiang and Cody Crane. Oil Spill: Disaster. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.Taylor, Dorceta. Environment and Social Justice: An International Perspective. New York: Emerald Group Publishing, 2010. Print.Prasad, M. S., and Kumari, K.

"Toxicity of Crude Oil to the Survival of the Fresh Water FishPuntius sophore (HAM.)." Acta Hydrochimica et Hydrobiologica 15.1(1987): 29.Vassiliou, Marius. Historical Dictionary of the Petroleum Industry. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press (Rowman and Littlefield), 2009. p. 700. Print.