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    1. Regional Reports
    2. Middle East

    Monitoring project offshore Israel suggests no produced water discharge contamination

    Feb. 8, 2022
    CSA Ocean Sciences has completed a water quality monitoring project offshore Israel for a major oil and gas company.
    (Courtesy CSA Ocean Sciences)
    Csa Israel 6202980f2c95d

    Offshore staff

    STUART, Florida – CSA Ocean Sciences has completed a water quality monitoring project offshore Israel for a major oil and gas company.

    This was the first time, CSA said, that passive sampling devices (PSDs) had been successfully deployed in Israeli waters to conduct water quality studies for the oil and gas industry.

    The devices, deployed in late 2020 and retrieved early last year following a 43-day soak period, recorded the accumulation of 76 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and seven metals: chromium, cadmium, mercury, lead, manganese, nickel, and zinc.

    Sample analysis results approved and published by the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection last August – indicated no statistical difference between the concentrations of parameters detected by the PSDs close to the platform and those placed at reference checkpoints.

    The conclusion was that the produced water discharge from the platform, which started gas production at the end of 2019 (thought to be at the Leviathan field), was not introducing PAHs or metals in concentrations that exceeded environmental thresholds.

    As a result, there were no bioaccumulation driven-impacts on fish or other marine organisms.

    Previously, bioaccumulation studies for PAHs in waters around oil and gas platforms in the region had relied on either in-situ deployment of live biota in cages or the removal of animals from their natural habitat to perform laboratory experiments.

    However, PSDs are designed to mimic the passive uptake of organic compounds across biological membranes, such as fish gills, PSA pointed out. So they offer a non-intrusive method for accurately estimating the bioaccumulation of contaminants of concern without disruption to the local marine life.

    John Tiggelaar, CSA’s project manager, said: “This novel use of PSDs provides our client the reassurances they need about the environmentally safe discharge of produced water following the platform’s first full year in service, a baseline from which they can confidently manage and assess any future mitigation strategies.”

    CSA field scientists collaborated with operatives and subject matter experts from Marine Ventures International on the project.

    02/08/2022