| Waste management and spills |
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Waste management and spills
In 2009 the total amount of hazardous waste from MOL Group operations amounted to 66.8 thousand tons, a decrease of one third from last year’s 98.8 thousand tons. This was mainly due to fewer overhauls and tank reconstruction works, which were postponed or deleted due to production rescheduling.
We strive to minimize the impacts of our projects and operations. For instance, in Pakistan, 4,000 tons of oil based mud cuttings were treated in an environmentally friendly manner, i.e. bioremediation. The treated cuttings were utilized as fill material for the construction of different access roads.
A major part of the refinery wastes were handled in our own waste treatment facilities (incinerators and waste-water treatment works) at the Duna, Zala and Tisza Refineries. In order to meet legal requirements and increase the efficiency of both the Duna and Tisza Refinery waste incinerators we prepared a feasibility study. Using these methods emissions to the environment can be reduced and the capacity of incinerators can be increased.
We have also incorporated waste reduction methods into our refinery processes in order to (1) reduce the amount of oily sludge and to reuse it in a three-phase centrifuge, (2) reduce the amount of biological sludge through the use of press filters.
Besides creating less waste compared to last year (by 14.5%), we significantly increased the ratio of recycled or reused waste.
In our Lubricants division 9.2% (5,145 tons / 56,000 tons) of oil which is sold is recollected and used as an input in our refineries.
Spills
In 2009 we had 17 spills of above 1 m3, resulting in a total volume of 245 m3 lost material, which is less than third of last year’s spilled volume.
Primarily affected businesses were Logistics, Refining and Exploration and Production. Compared to 2008, at Logistics there was no major pipeline failure and consequently the number of spills has been reduced, and their average volume decreased to a fifth of the amount lost (altogether four cases resulting in 170 m3 of loss in this department). From the Refining department’s six spills (total volume of 59 m3) the largest happened at a crude storage area in wintertime: all 45 m3 of leaked and subsequently frozen material was collected without any environmental consequences.
Our upstream division witnessed some small (below 1m3), often only oily water spills around the production areas. Here, a total of 7 spills of over 1 m3 occured, with 15.65 m3 of total material loss.
In 2009 we continued replacing certain pipeline sections, similarly to the practice followed in past years, in order to reduce the number of failures and irregularities.
