UNIVERSITI

TEKNOLOGIMARA
FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN
KIMIA

TRUE COST OF WASTE GENERATION EFFECTS

TO OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Title: Cost of Waste toward Future

NAME NO MATRIX

MOHD RAFIQ BIN MOHD ZUBIR 2017466188

MOHAMMAD FIKRI BIN HUSAILI 2017466178

2017466156
MOHD FIKRI BIN NASIR

MUHAMMAD AIMAN FAISAL BIN MOHD ZAILANI 2017466168

2017466164
NUR MOHAMMAD SHAHRUL IKRAM BIN MOHD NOR

Checked by: PROF MADYA DR AYUB MD SOM

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Table of Content

No. Content Page

1. Introduction 2
2. Cost of Waste toward Future - Raw material 3
3. Cost of Waste toward Future - Energy use 4
4. Cost of Waste toward Future - Effluent 5-6
5. Cost of Waste toward Future - Labour 7
6. Cost of Waste toward Future - Skips 8-9
7. Conclusion 9
8. References 10

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1. Introduction

Waste is everything that we discard, dumped, produced and all of them is not required or
wanted anymore. As we know todays, the waste keeps increasing drastically without anyone
concerned about it. This is because in our daily life, there were no single day that the day
without waste. Therefore, everyday there must be wastes that has been dispose. Disposing of
waste can have a significant impact on many things in our world especially on our future. For
us to sustain and preserve our future, we should manage the waste properly.

Based on my research, the waste that we generate is over 350 million tons per year. Waste
generated depends on the type of business operated. The operating business that produce the
most waste is manufacturing business. If we not manage these wastes properly, it may cost
many things in our future.

There are two cost of waste that can be identified. First is visible cost and the other one is
hidden cost. Visible cost is the cost that we can see it physically while hidden cost cannot be
seen physically but it may affect our future without we realized it. Some example of these
costs are effluent, skips, energy use, raw material, labor, time and maintenance.

In order for us to be aware of the importance of waste management, we must first understand
and know the cost of the waste to our future. Then, we will know the advantages and
disadvantages of the waste. From here, we can start to learn about waste management
techniques and then manage the waste properly either by reduce, reuse, recycle or treat them.

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2. Cost of Waste toward Future – Raw Materials

The raw materials that used in oil and gas industry nowadays will have a great cost of waste
generation on future. The harmful waste from the production of crude oil and natural gas
need careful disposal to reduce the impact on environment. To sustain our ecosystem, we
must make sure to implement the hierarchy of waste management. The main point is the
developer or manufacturer in oil and gas industry must choose the right raw materials to be
use in the production line. Renewable raw material is the best option to achieve the
sustainability and save the future.

To achieve the sustainable goal, we must know how long it takes to decompose the waste.
The major problem we are facing nowadays are plastic products derived from petroleum.
According to estimates, every year we use approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil just for
producing plastic water bottle. These plastic products such as water bottle and plastic bags
took very long time up to 1000 years to decompose. An example of invention that can secure
the future environment is biodegradable plastics. These plastics can be produce from many
different of raw materials such as petrochemical and cornstarch. As we know, the worlds’
population now is 9 billion people, so that they are many plastics that need to fulfil the
demand of consumers. If this happened the cost of waste that effect on future can be reduce.

Palm oil is the best solution to reduce the cost waste generated by oil and gas industry on
future. Besides producing cooking oil, margarine, glycerol and soaps, it also can produce
biodiesel. Biodiesel is a renewable resource unlike the petroleum products that will vanish in
years to come. It produces less toxic pollutants and greenhouse gases than petroleum oil.
Fossil fuels that we burnt nowadays will release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. It increase the temperature and contribute to global warming. Based on study by
experts, the adoption of biofuel can reduce greenhouse gases up to 78%.

Instead of changing the raw material, the waste is potentially recyclable into secondary raw
materials. There are opportunities to increase the secondary raw materials by increasing the
recycling and proper waste management. The use of secondary raw materials is important in
industry, both as source of additional material resources and factors in reducing cost of
products. Secondary raw materials such as machines, equipment and metal scrap can reduce
the cost of waste generation on future.

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3. Cost of Waste toward Future – Energy Use

Based on our basic knowledge, we knew that there were two types of energy in this world
that we used in our daily life. They are renewable energy and non-renewable energy.
Renewable energy is some source of energy that does not depleted when we used it for a long
period. For non-renewable energy, the meaning is opposite to renewable energy that cannot
be replace once consumed.

Todays, the most consumed energy is non-renewable energy. So from the present consumed
energy, it may affect the future which the non-renewable energy sources may be completely
being used, means that there are no more fossil fuels, oil, coal, nuclear energy and natural
gas. In order to avoid this from happening, non- renewable energy used should be reduce and
increase the usage of renewable energy.

In 2015, a journal published entitled Energy & Environmental Science authored by Standford
scholar Mark Z.Jacobson and nine colleagues told about their ambition to work on renewable
energy. They want to replace the existing consumed energy which mostly used are oil, natural
gas and coal with wind, water and solar (WWS). The figure 1 shows their future of plan on
reducing the usage of non-renewable energy by increasing the renewable energy usage.

Figure 1 Maps on Future Usage of Energy

Their core plan is to electrify everything. This does not mean that they want to destroy or
disregard the non-renewable energy but they just want to reduce it. They also want to switch
the entire industry sector to be runs on electric power instead of fossil fuels. By shifting into
renewable energy or electricity, it may eliminate many bad things and provide good things to
our future such as eliminating air pollution reduce health problems and save on health costs.

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4. Cost of Waste toward Future – Effluent

Effluent is normally the liquid that being disposed by the industry, factory, civilization area
and framing area, into the river, lake, sewer system and sea. Usually the released effluent
containing very heavy chemical contains, inflammable solvent, garbage, tar or the immiscible
liquid, and other solid matters.

The excessive waste disposal of effluent into the river can cause flooding. This is because the
solid matters in the river will assemble in one particular area and the movement or the
flowrate of the water will reduce and flood will occur. Next, the color of the water will
change darker due to massive chemical waste being disposed into the river, sewer and lake. It
also will release the bad odor to the surrounding when people smell because it contains
chemical and dead animals in the river. Furthermore, the Biochemical Oxygen Demand
(BOD) will increase rapidly and bacteria try to decompose the organic matter will use a lot of
oxygen. So the amount of oxygen in the river, lake, and sewer system immediately will
reduce very fast also the flora and fauna live in that ecosystem cannot get enough oxygen and
slowly its will die. The ecosystem of the river will badly damage it environment and no living
things will live in that particular area.

Figure 2: Effluent Figure 3: Many Figure 4: Many

from industry aquatic lives die suspended solid in
released into the river
inland water

In order to get the cleaner water environment, the effluent water must be treated and examine
the effect of effluent to the environment. The disposal waste in the sewage must be measure
to investigate the degree of the pollutants in the river, lake or sewer to get better
understanding and facilitate treatment. The purpose of treatment is to get the lower pH value
in the environment and low BOD value in the ecosystem. As the value disposal of effluents
decrease the water will become clearer, good quality and the aquatic live will increase. Thus,
the restriction of release the effluent into the inland water must be apply by the industry and
civilization area to reduce the number of effluent released into the inland water.

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In the oil and gas industry, there are several factors can cause effluent in oil and gas industry.
The drilling wastes is consider as the major factor of effluent in oil and gas industry. The
waste of drilling fluids and drilling cutting usually contain small chipping solid that may
deposited on the onshore where the drilling site is located. Produced water is the amount of
water generated from the oil and gas extraction process. The produced water from the oil and
gas industry also considered as the effluent because highly contains many chemical solvents
that can damage the marine ecosystem. The amount of oil spills from the upstream
production fill up at the sea surface.

In the future, if the excessive effluent from the oil and gas industry cannot be controlled it
will be a disaster for human mankind and also for marine ecosystem. The oil is less density
compare to the water so the oil will be on the top of sea surface. The oil will block the
sunlight from entering to the sea floor and the aquatic plant cannot enough food supply and
slowly die due time. The fish also cannot get enough oxygen and clean air for breathing
because the sea surface coated will thick layer of oil spill. So many marines live rapidly die
and human cannot get fresh food supply from the sea.

Figure 5: Effluent from oil and gas

industry released into onshore

Next, in order to sustain the amount of the effluent in the future is try to reduce the significant
value of waste materials from the oil and gas industry. The value of produced water needed to
be controlled. The possible treatment for the produced water are operating performance of
gas flotation technology, granular filtration and subsequent surface water discharge, granular
filtration by reinjection of produced water into any compatible geologic formation. The cost
of treatment will depend on the size of the upstream area of petroleum production. The bigger
the area the more cost needed for the treatment of the produced water.

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5. Cost of Waste toward Future - Labour

Labour is kind of amount of physical and mental expertise in doing their service
works, making goods, building construction and even managing waste. They will receive
wage to buy their daily necessities such as goods and service that cannot be produce by
themselves. The labour who works in servicing, predominantly the work that exposed to the
hazardous materials such as waste management in oil and gas industry need to be prepared
with safety equipment during working in order to prevent from any issues such as health
problem.

Waste is the most hazardous materials because the chemical and biological contents that mix
up together that does not know the consequences at the future for our health that probably can
get long-term illness such as leukaemia, lupus, and lymphoma. This case is not just
precaution but it has happened at one of factory that 200 workers been reported that diseased
with chronic illness. This is not high quality of awareness of labours’ health and the company
will lost many of their profit in finance their workers’ hospital bills.

Some of the waste is hard to control and treat if it spill to the surface such as crude oil spill at
the ocean that can cause of many pollution and obviously water pollution. The way to treat
the spilled oil is consumed time, which is years for fully recover the certain area equal to the
needs of hiring the expertise worker and labour for treating the area. Take example as
Deepwater Horizon accident where takes 5 years for fully recover the sea and waste of
spillage hydrocarbon. Many aquatic lives dead and been contaminated with the spillage that
can cause extinction in the future and somehow it is harmful to the labour who work in
recovering the place if not fully prepared with safety equipment that can cause health
problem in the future or death.

Labour is one of the factor in production rate where equal with profit rate. Each company
have their goal especially in making profit where they have their percentage of profit every
month. If in the future, the labour has works without any safety equipment for long-term
period, the labour were exposed to hazardous materials, it can cause the labour the health
problem that can cause to the production rate decreasing and profit will be slow down every
month. In the future, the company need to pay the consequences that been made to the labour
that can cause bankruptcy.

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6. Cost of Waste toward Future – Skips

It is obviously true that the amount of waste is being produce and keeps increasing day by
day. This will eventually affect the future in many aspects. Back to the main issue, it is record
that the world generates 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with at least
33% of that not managed in an environmentally safe manner. The East Asia and Pacific
region is the region that currently generates most of the world’s waste at 23% while the high-
income countries combined are generating over one-third of the world’s waste. As stated at
the beginning, this problem keeps increasing from days to days and we will surely
confronting some costs from that issue.

There are two types of cost of waste which are known as visible costs and hidden costs. Skips
are one of the visible costs of waste. A skip is a large open-topped waste container designed
for loading onto a special type of lorry. The skip is removed or replaced by an empty skip and
then tipped at a landfill site or transfer station instead of been emptied into a bin lorry on site.
Skips are commonly use to hold open-topped loads of construction and demolition waste,
garden waste or any other waste and litter types.

Regarding the increment amount of waste every year, the usage of skip will surely increase
too. In my opinion, if the wastes are not being well manage or reduced properly, the cost of
skip will be higher and the number of skips and containers we needed will be higher too. The
service of skip is not free. The cost of skip will depend on several factors but typically varies
based on the type and volume of waste that need to be remove and also the size of the skip.
Every company offers different prices. The average price for an 8 yard builders skip is around
RM1250. That is before the cost of any skip permit or parking bay suspension. Before putting
a skip on a road, we need a skip hire permit and if it is in a controlled parking zone, we will
need a parking suspension. Both cost us money and take at least a few days to arrange.
Furthermore, if the skips are overfilled, the skip company will also charge us more at the
point of collection. Therefore, in the future, the wastes need to be reduce in order for us to
use less skips that may cost us a lot of money.

Unmanaged and overflowing waste can also affect our health and environment. These issues
can be happen if we use less skip in the future. One of the outcomes of overflowing waste is
water pollution. Garbage and liquid waste that end up in water bodies negatively change the
chemical composition of the water that affects all ecosystems existing in the water, including
fish and other animals that drink the polluted water. Overflowing waste can also cause air

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pollution. The toxic substances in air contaminated by waste include carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxide and methane that can cause various respiratory diseases and other adverse health
effects. Besides causing all sorts of health and environmental issues, overflowing waste is a
public nuisance and eyesore.

In conclusion, waste management is a universal issue that matters to every single person in
the world. Improving waste management will also help cities become more resilient to the
extreme climate occurrences that cause flooding, damage infrastructure and displace
communities and their livelihood. If left unmanaged, dumped or burned, waste harms human
health, damages the environment and climate plus hinders economic growth in poor and rich
countries alike.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, true cost of waste generation on future will cause a great impact on oil and gas
industry. Therefore, in order to reduce the cost of waste generation on future, we must
acknowledge all disposal and hidden cost such as raw material, effluent and energy use that
contribute to cost waste generation on future. Petroleum industry consists of three activities;
upstream, midstream and downstream activities. The upstream activities such as drilling,
completion, and production operations, various wastes including muds, cuttings, and others
are create along the oil and gas. These wastes can be disposed of through a variety of
methods, including burial, either onsite or (more commonly) offsite. In order to benefit the,
government must enforce strict act regarding the waste management practice of the oil
exploration and production waste discharge from oil and gas industry. These complies the
lacking of knowledge on petroleum waste management, less encouragement from agencies
that manage petroleum wastes, low of commitments from petroleum waste management party
and finally the cost of managing the petroleum wastes. Oil and gas industry is indeed
contribute a great impact to development in Malaysia as well continued to become one of the
major source of income for the government. Despite the challenges that the oil and gas
industry is currently facing, the focus on oil and gas projects arising from Economic
Transformation Program will create a progressive oil and gas industry in Malaysia with
various market opportunity and potential jobs.

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8. References

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