Understanding and predicting the environmental impact of discharges from offshore installations is fundamental to the environmental management and planning of offshore facilities. The Pollution Risk Offshore Technical EvalUation System (PROTEUS) surpasses all existing technology in its ability to predict the physical dispersion, chemical interactions and ecotoxicological risk for discharges during exploration, production and decommissioning.

Offshore operators routinely require knowledge of the impacts of inputs to the marine environment. During exploration the fate of drilling wastes is an important consideration in the Environmental Impact Statement. In production, the discharge of produced water and associated chemical additives becomes important when considering the economic and environmental implications of alternative treatment. In planning for decommissioning the environmental impact of removal requires an assessment in order to select the Best Praticable Environmental Option (BPEO).

Development
PROTEUS has been developed over a five year period, during which time academic research into water plume and particulate mixing behaviour, offshore chemical behaviour and marine ecotoxicology has focused on developing the underpinning models required to predict the overall impact of discharges.

Exploration Drilling
The model uses a unique database to generate suitable cuttings size distributions based on drilling plans. The model is able to simulate the complete drilling operation including multiple sections, different mud systems, workover delays, and bulk or continuous discharges of material.

Decommissioning
The disturbance of existing piles during the decommissioning process is supported by PROTEUS using detailed hydrodynamic information to simulate the re-distribution of mud/cuttings following intervention or removal operations.

Produced Water Discharges
PROTEUS is able to model the dynamic, buoyancy and passive mixing phase of produced waters discharged into seawater.