BSP Closes Waste Storage Area In Seria
By Liza Mohd

Seria - Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (BSP) yesterday held the closing ceremony of the Sg Bera Holding Basin Remediation Project (SBHB). The event was officiated by Acting Belait District Officer Awg Hj Ali bin Matyassin.

Managing Director of BSP, Mr Mark Carne, said that the SBHB used to sit on a six-hectare area that was once filled with oil sludge but now the land has been restored to its natural state.

Since 1992, the SBHB which was located next to the east fence of the Seria Crude Oil Terminal close to the river's estuary was used to process and store a variety of oily wastes generated from the exploration and production of oil.

This method of waste disposal received general acceptance among key people in the industry and the society for many decades, both in Brunei and internationally. However in more recent years, concern and consideration for the environment have increased not only in the international community but also in Brunei, Mr Carne said.

Therefore, a major study was conducted in 1991 and 1992 to examine exactly what was in SBHB and in the ground below and around it. With the findings of the study in hand, BSP and the Petroleum Unit (PU) of the Prime Minister's Department conducted extensive consultations with experts to decide the best clean-up strategy and in 1997 a Project Development Plan was approved defining the problem and the options, including preferred clean-up methods, possible contracting strategies, budgets and time schedule.

In November 1999, the project was awarded to a consortium companies comprising Hj Adinin & Sons Sdn Bhd and three other Canadian companies - Envirosoil Limited, Jacques Whitford Environment Ltd and Inland Technologies Inc.

Mr Carne said that the consortium's work began with the removal of approximately 80,000 cubic metres of oil based mud and underlying soil, which was treated using a technology called Low Temperature Thermal Desorption (LTTD) that required about 19 separate stages to complete at a processing rate of about 100 cubic metres a day.

The treated waste and soil then had to be mixed with clean soil and sand before being returned to its original location at the SBHB. The treatment was conducted at a specialised LTTD plant assembled on-site at the SBHB that was dismantled after the completion of the project.

Now the land has been replanted and nature will take over as the land is returned to productive recreational use.

"This project has been one of the highest priority projects in BSP," Mr Carne said in his speech at the ceremony.

"The completion of the SBHB Remediation Project is a success achieved through the work of not the project team alone, but the effort and concern of many local parties, contracting companies and the Government of Brunei Darussalam and Shell International."

Apart from the direct results the SBHB remediation project has brought to the environment, there is today an increased confidence among members of the community that they have actually learned about the preservation of nature as much as they will stand to benefit from its continued sustainability, Mr Carne added. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Brudirect.com News