Oil & Gas

Oil and gas, or related energy production industries, are responsible for exploration, extraction, and refining of materials used to supply the world’s energy, in balance with other resources.  This technical-heavy industry requires a wide variety of scientific support.

Gradient has provided decades of technical support to the oil and gas industry.  Our scientists specialize in assessing environmental and human health risks in all oil and gas sectors, including exploration and production, transmission, and refining.  Gradient assists clients with current operations, the development of new assets or infrastructure, product and portfolio evaluations, and risks associated with legacy operations.

Gradient’s experts perform risk assessments and forensic analyses on topics including:  air exposure scenarios, subsurface gas migration, liquid and gaseous fluid dynamics, spills or product releases, and legacy chemicals in environmental media.  Our staff also have decades of experience developing and overseeing investigations and sampling programs, and evaluating data integrity.  We have applied these skills and techniques in both unconventional and conventional ways, at the intersection of new and old assets, and at midstream and downstream facilities.

Technical Skills

• Evaluation of chemical toxicity of hydraulic fracturing (HF) chemical additives and natural brine
• Fate and transport of oils, gases, HF fluids, and fresh/salt water
• Comparative hazard and risk of drilling additives
• Human health and ecological risk assessment and risk-based remediation
• Natural resource damage assessment
• Drinking water risks for releases of drilling additives, natural gas, and chemicals in “flowback” water
• Evaluation and modeling of air emissions from well pads and transmission infrastructure (e.g., compressor stations)
• Chemical forensics and data quality
• Database design and management (regulatory compliance, workflow management, reporting and documentation)
• Geospatial data analytics and analysis of aerial and satellite imagery

Product Safety & Registration

• Health risk assessments for sensitive populations
• Toxicology assessments for safety data sheets (SDSs), product registration, and product liability claims
• Development of toxicity and exposure data for registration dossiers