The need to build an oil refinery in Unity state

By Choul Dugak Lieth

January 5, 2010 — The verity of this article is to address common health and safety issues regarding GoSS’s approval to build oil refinery in Akon, Warrap state. I have provided broad information about local refinery facilities and operations and the types of emissions that may be expected in the area. This information is furnished to familiarize you with the sources of possible environmental exposure risks and how these correlate to our people health especially those communities living near the oilfields in southern Sudan.

Before I can expound more on this, first let me define what an oil refinery is? An oil refinery is an organized and coordinated arrangement of manufacturing processes intended to convert physical and chemical changes in crude oil to change it into everyday products like diesel, gasoline, lubricating oil, and fuel oil. Petroleum on the other hand, is a complex mixture of organic liquids called crude oil and natural gas, which occurs naturally on ground and was formed millions of years ago, that’s why we have term “fossil fuels.”

A few months ago I read an article on Sudan tribune which states that the government of southern Sudan (GoSS) has approved to build an oil refinery in a village called Akon in Warrap state. Such decision has raised many concerns in Diaspora as well as at home in Sudan. The decision to build an oil refinery in Akon was economically imprudent partly because building an oil refinery is not simple, and it costs billions of dollars let alone building it further away from the oilfields. Mind you, we all know that oil is a national asset; however, those whom affected the most are the local people living near the oilfields.

Thus in my opinion, I think it ‘s important to build an oil refinery in Bentiu Unity state so that it will creates jobs to the local communities. Otherwise, there will be disputes in near future between Warrap and Unity state similar to what happened between Texas and Oklahoma in 1800’s when each state claimed the ownership of the riverbed where the oil pipeline passes through.

What is the problem with Refineries? The problem with oil refineries is that it can induce dirty environmental pollution. Even here in the United States of America refineries can be a major source of pollution and hazardous waste. Especially, insufficient plant design, poor management, faulty equipment, lack of environmental controls etc, may also have major impact on the local refineries resulting in a small optimal system performance. If the refinery procedure is poorly designed or compromised, the release of pollutants to the surrounding environment may result in short term exposures.

What sorts of pollution can be expected from refinery?

Air- the most obvious pollution on air encompass the following:

Sulphur oxides, Hydrocarbon, vapors, Smoke, and Smells.

Water- on the other hand is the major sources of water pollution include cooling water, surface water from rain and water that is actually utilized as part of the refinery processes. Liquid releases or discharges from a refinery may contain heavy metals, such as lead, and hydrocarbons.

Land- this is vital because what we have in southern Sudan is inland drilling meaning that it is not offshore drilling which pretty much take place in water. In the land drilling though, there are certain Materials, such as hydrocarbons, used in the process should be returned through a network of collection pipes and a series of dewatering tanks called a “slop” system then reprocessed through the distillation units.

Wastes that cannot be reprocessed can be re-used again to manufacturers, disposed in approved facilities, or chemically treated on site to forge inert materials, which can be disposed to a landfill within the refinery. Moreover, the movement of waste material is regularly required according to the host country’s environmental laws. In the U.S. for instance, a “Process Liquid, Sludge and Solid Waste Disposal Permit” is used and wastes that go off site must have “Waste Transport Permit.”

What are the exposure risks to communities close to the oil fields? Emissions from the burning of waste aromatic hydrocarbons produce smoke containing particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and many other products of petroleum combustion. Those things can cause Health risk to individuals living near the oil fields and short term effects can happen during the peak periods of refinery operations.

These effects are worsened by preexisting conditions, such as asthma, cigarette smoking, and upper respiratory allergies. These effects are reversible and may comprise skin irritation; runny nose, cough, shortness of breath; eye nose and throat irritation; and aggravation of sinus or asthma conditions. What types of controls are utilized to avert the release of pollution? Typical pollution control equipment may comprise mechanical separators, filtration devices, particulate scrubbers, wet collectors, electrostatic precipitators, gas absorbers and combustion incinerators. Well run refinery operations employ a variety of process and engineering controls designed to maintain the environment and manage the environmental aspects of the refining process.

The excessive loss of hydrocarbons to the surrounding environment has a negative financial impact in terms of money lost in product, so there is reason to control hydrocarbon loses. Efforts to control other wastes, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulates, benzene, smog-causing VOCs and carbon monoxides may not be a high precedence due to the cost and technologies involved. Since there are no measures taken by the government of south Sudan (GoSS) so far to protect the health and welfare of our people located near oil fields.

I would definitely encourage the (GoSS) to select environmental health site assessment teams so they can evaluate and investigate possible risks to personnel through observation and measurement of the surrounding environment. Assessment of risks to personnel begins with the environmental health site assessment process before units are actually put on the ground to build the refinery. Building an oil refinery seriously needs a government which cares for its people and its ecosystem.

Furthermore, (GoSS) will needs to have an on-going preventative health management program which will includes the collection of environmental samples from soil, air, and water. The information gathered from sampling in close proximity environment is used to repetitively track and monitor the health risks presented to the people from exposure to these sources of pollution as well as all other likely exposure sources that happen during the your development. All potential sources of damage to health, welfare and the environment are taken into account during the EHSA process, including oil well fires, open pit burning, and routine occupational exposure for industrial operations.

Last but least, it would be wise for (GoSS) officials to reassess their decision and build oil refinery in Bentiu or Upper Nile area so that they don’t have to build temporary tanks in oil fields to store thousand of gallons of crude oil and move them all over again to Warrap state by trucks, and barge to process and purified them.

The author can be reached at [email protected]