Supporting remediation of Romania’s oil and gas industry

By Florin Gheorghiu and Martin Bjerregaard, Mount Laurel, USA and Chelmsford, UK

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Romania's oil and gas industry, dating back to the 1850s, has a long and proud history ­ and has also produced over a century's worth of environmental challenges.

Environmental remediation of Romania’s oil and gas industry will be a decades-long process.

A 20-to-30-year environmental cleanup by the former national oil and gas company Petrom S.A. involves the shut down, decommissioning, remediation and preparation of a range of installations for future land use. Golder Associates is acting as an in-house strategic environmental and management consultant for this work, which involves 24,000 onshore oil wells, 1,100 production facilities, five underground oil mines, 47 sludge pits and several oil refineries.

The sheer volume of work and the need to manage the multi-year timeline has called for some of the most recent developments in information technology. Golder is developing a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool for Petrom's assets and liabilities to help with scheduling. The work has also included developing a remediation matrix to bring consistency to Petrom's environmental cleanup work.

After setting up a project office in the city of Ploiesti, in the heart of Romania's oil and gas industry, Golder has been able to assemble a highly skilled international team. Many members are of Romanian birth or heritage and are eager to return to help their homeland. They bring with them an understanding of Romanian language and culture, which, coupled with their internationally developed professional skills, will help improve the environmental health of this part of central Europe.