Paraná Basin

Paraná Basin

Introduction

The environmental impact of the exploration and production activities of the petroleum industry is a burning question now a day. The Paraná Basin of Brazil has one of the potent reserves of petroleum. Besides its large reserves of petroleum this basin also has a tropical environment best for tourism and adventures. This paper discusses the possible environmental impacts of the E&P activities in the Paraná basin and gives solutions to them in the light of EIA.

Discussion

Geological Background of the Paraná Basin

Paraná basin is one of the largest sedimentary basins of the South America (Brazil). The Paraná basin has an area of 1100,000 km2 of Brazil. Paraná basin was formed during the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic era. The majority of the Paraná basin is composed of sedimentary rocks with influxes of igneous rock.

As described by Milani (1997) the straitigraphy of Paraná basin is composed of six super sequences lying on other in the following order:

Rio Ivai: Generally composed of muddy sandstones.

Paraná: Coarse to medium sandstone with shale on top.

Gondwana I: Bottom is glacial deposits with sandstone and conglomerate, center is sandstone with coal deposits and the top is composed of bituminous shale.

Gondwana II: The mixture of sandstone shale and silt stone.

Gondwana III: Have one of the largest aquifer Guarani composed of coarse to fine sandstone. At the top 2000m of basalt layer is present.

Bauru: sandy conglomerate.

Parana basin is well known for its huge reserves of natural gas coal and shale oil. The Paraná basin has a good potential for petroleum hence there are a large number of E&P companies that have interest in this region.

Environment Receptors

Environment receptors are defined as the entities of the environment i.e. atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.

Atmosphere is the cover of the mixture of the gases around the earth surface. This mixture of the gases protects the earth from solar radiation and provides a suitable background for the life on the earth by reducing the earth temperature. The mixture of these gases is composed majorly of Nitrogen oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Hydrosphere is defined as the total water found under or over the earth surface. This covers the water in the oceans, seas, lakes, water-falls, underground reserves, glaciers etc.

The term biosphere is used for all the living organisms found on the planet earth. These include animal kingdom as well as plant kingdom. Biosphere completely depends upon the other three environmental receptors for its survival.

Lithosphere is the upper most surface of the earth crust and mantle. Lithosphere is made up of rocks. These rocks are categorized as igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. These rocks bear natural resources that provide support for the living organisms.

Environmental Receptors in Paraná Basin

Environmental receptors of Paraná Basin are its tropical rainy atmosphere, lush green lithosphere enriched with natural resources and hydrosphere with the largest aquifer in the world. The lithosphere of the Paraná Basin is generally made up of sedimentary rocks with some layers of the igneous ones. These sedimentary rocks are either highly porous sandstone or shale enriched ...