Priority-setting regarding offshore substances and preparations

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

The offshore industry uses a relatively large number of chemicals for the production of oil and gas, for transport through pipe-lines, for maintenance of installations and equipment, and in laboratories.

In the OSPAR area, about 1 million tons of offshore chemicals are used annually, covering a range from large volumes of more or less harmless chemicals to lower volumes of black-listed substances as e.g. heavy metals and halogenated organics. The knowledge on the contents of the chemicals and their environmental and occupational hazards was at the start of the project very limited. Moreover, it is the general policy of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) that industrial use of chemicals should be evaluated with the purpose of identifying possibilities for substituting hazardous chemicals with less hazardous chemicals.

Therefore, the Danish EPA initiated the present project in 1994.

1.2 Purpose

The objective of the project is to establish principles and knowledge for evaluation and prioritisation of offshore chemicals regarding their risks to environment and human health in order to identify candidates for substitution.

The objective is obtained by accomplishment of the following activities:

	establishment of a database on offshore chemicals including composition, use pattern and the physico-chemical, human health and environmental properties of preparations and substances contained herein
	development of criteria for pre-screening of offshore chemicals
	development of criteria for substitution evaluation of offshore chemicals

1.3 Organisation of the project

The project was prepared in co-operation between the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, the Danish Energy Agency, the North Sea Operators Committee, Denmark (NSOC-D), the Danish Products Registration Office and a project group.

Steering group

A steering group followed and guided the project. Members of the steering group were:

Eva Lise Bendixen, Danish EPA (chairman)
Peter Györkös, Danish EPA
Lone Schou, Danish EPA (until 31 December 1997)
Hanneke Tibosch, Danish EPA (until 31 March 1996)
Søren Strange, Danish Energy Agency (until 31 March 1997)
Hans Erik Christensen, Danish Energy Agency (from 1 April 1997)
Graca Gosk, Danish Products Registration Office
John Douglas Petersen, NSOC-D (observer - until 30 November 1997)
Mike Robson, NSOC-D (observer)
Lisbeth Mygind, DTC
Anders Schmidt, dk-TEKNIK
Preben Kristensen, VKI (until 30 April 1997)
Finn Pedersen, VKI

Project group

The project group consisted of VKI, dk-TEKNIK, DTC Danish Toxicology Centre and the Danish EPA. The criteria for pre-screening of offshore chemicals were developed by the project group. VKI has been responsible for the development of the PROSPECT database, the testing of the pre-screening criteria, the ecotoxicological evaluation of the chemicals a.o. via the CHARM model. dk-TEKNIK and DTC have been responsible for the evaluation of human toxicology. The Danish EPA has been responsible for the contact to NSOC-D and the suppliers, for the collection of data on the offshore chemicals and entering data into the database. Finally, VKI has prepared the report and co-ordinated the project.

Members of the project group were Finn Pedersen (VKI), Axel Damborg (VKI), Preben Kristensen (VKI), Arne Hurup Nielsen (VKI), Dorte Rasmussen (VKI), Anders Schmidt (dk-TEKNIK), Lisbeth Mygind (DTC) and Hanneke Tibosch (Danish EPA).