Turning waste oil into useful products – Skyy Power FM

Many times when environmental issues are raised, there is little talk about waste management on the ocean.

Meanwhile, the oil drilling companies situated in the oceans produce waste that needs to be managed in order not to cause marine environment pollution.

In an interview with Skyy News’ Rosaline Djan, the Assistant EHC manager for Zeal Environmental Technologies Limited, an indigenous Ghanaian oil and gas waste management company, Mr Andrews Agyemang made it known that after drilling the oil, the companies have big cargo tanks that they store the crude oil which needs to be emptied and cleaned up because the waste turns into “sludge” after some time.

He noted that because of the partnership with international law over marine environment pollution, the sludge can not be disposed of into the sea, hence the need for them to clean it up, “so we take all the sludge back to our site for management”, he added.

Mr Agyemang further made it known that the sludge is properly managed at their site, chemically and biologically.

According to him, the chemical side management of the sludge is done by adding additives to the sludge then they leave it to stabilize and after a while, it turns into sand that can be used for block moulding in building construction.

For the biological side management, he said, “We have a way we introduce bacteria into the sludge. We have the hydrocarbons inside the sludge so the bacteria will feed on the hydrocarbons for the oil to vanish and we use it for other purposes like greenage”, he explained.

Mr Andrew Agyemang further stated that his outfit doesn’t only focus on the marine environment, mining, and oil drilling waste management, they manage other waste too, like plastic waste because their main aim is to ensure that the environment is clean.

He also said that sometimes there is oil spillage and as a result, they have trained people who can do the oil clean-up exercise for onshore oil spillage, “they are more like contractors. We have some who work as permanent staff and also some who are contractors trained for our onshore clean up”, he disclosed.

Mr Agyeman said these are some of the ways Zeal seeks to protect the oceans from pollution.

Story: Rosaline Djan