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I need to toss out a quick question to THO experts. This past week, my Environmental Politics course focused on energy scarcity and peak oil. One of the students asked about the effects of petroleum extraction on the area around the oil fields. I told them that I had never encountered a discussion about oil field subsidence being the same problem that it is with over mining water from aquifers, but I would try to find out. Is this ever an issue? If so how is it mitigated?
Yes, subsidence happens, occasionally. Also known as reservoir compaction. Most famous example is probably the Ekofisk field offshore Norway. The solution there was to cut the platform legs, jack the top part up, and weld in spoolpieces (extensions) to keep the topsides at a safe height above the waterline...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekofisk
Another well-known example is the change in the eastern coastline of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela over several decades of oil production...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maracaibo#Subsiding_Ground
Go to Lagunillas, Zulia, Venezuela in Google Earth. Here's a picture from Panoramio of a guy walking on the berm that was built to protect the city. Note derricks visible on the sea horizon...
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2499455
And here's a paper abstract that mentions a few examples...
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Library/4218/event_200312.htm
You're welcome!
The Plucky Underdog
Oil production-related subsidence has also occurred at Long Beach, CA, and to a lesser extent in Galveston, TX.
http://www-geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~GEL115/115CHXXsubsidence.html
http://www.hgsubsidence.org/About/History.html
Thanks for the info. I'll incorporate it into my presentation.
What about last year's mudslides? I think they were related to drilling into a gas deposit. Indonesia?
You've probably already though of this, but Saddam's destruction of the Kuwaiti oil wells must surely rank among the worst man-made environmental disasters of all time. Such disasters have happend on a much smaller scale as well.