International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.6, 51-58
51
Research Article Open Access
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in the Soil of West Qurna-2 Oil Field Southern
Iraq
Hamid T. Al-Saad
1
, Duha S. Karem
2
, Hamzah A. Kadhim
2
1 College of Marine Science, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
2 Department of geology, College of Science –Basrah Universit, Iraq
Corresponding email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No. 6 doi
Received: 6 Jan., 2017
Accepted: 21 Feb., 2017
Published: 2 Mar., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Al-Saad et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Al-Saad H.T., Karem D.S., and Kadhim H.A., 2017, Total petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil of West Qurna-2 oil field Southern Iraq, International Journal of
Marine Science, 7(6): 51-58 (doi
Abstract
This study focused on the determinate the concentrations of Total hydrocarbon by using spectroflurometer, for soil in ten
stations at West Qurna-2 oil field. The regional distribution of TPHs at the present study showed a highest concentration of TPHs
during spring at station 10 (41.86 μg/g dry weigh) while a lowest concentration observed during spring at station 1 (14.82 μg/g dry
weigh). The seasonal distribution of TPHs show highest level in all stations during winter (30.350 μg/g) and the lowest levels
observed during summer (24.167 μg/g). With respect to spatial variably of studied parameters, the parameters concentrations in
studied stations gradually increased from station 1 to station 5, and then significantly decreased at station 6 and finally increased to
station 10. The fluctuation in concentrations of concentrations in stations is due to distance from the flame of the flare wh ich near to
the stations 8, 9, 10 and far to the stations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, while the seasonal concentration arrange as following:
winter >spring >autumn>summer. There were non-significant correlation between the TPH in soil and each of the soil texture
compounds (sand, silt and clay), while there is significant correlation between the TPH in soil and TOC%. By comprising the result
concentration of this study with literature reviews, the concentration levels lies within it and in other cases exceed it.
Keywords
TPH; Soil; Pollution; West Qurna-2 oil field; Southern Iraq
Introduction
Petroleum is a complex mixture of components, including organic and inorganic chemicals. Organic hydrocarbon
contains 4–26, or more carbon atoms with different arrangements that include straight and branched aliphatic
hydrocarbons, or cyclic rings. The total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) refer to any mixture of hydrocarbons
found in crude oil (Douben, 2003).Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs), defined as a mixture of aromatic and
aliphatic hydrocarbons coming from crude oil products used in industry and transportation, can be both toxic for
soil microorganisms as well as beneficial as a carbon source (Sutton et al., 2013).
Petroleum hydrocarbons come into the environment through accidents, spills or leaks, from industrial discharges,
or by items from business or residential employments (Ines et al., 2013).
Low amounts of hydrocarbons from natural sources “biogenic” such as higher plants can kept by soil (Zhang et al.,
2012), several processes such as volatilization, photo-oxidation, chemical reactions, leaching and biodegradation
may be removed the hydrocarbons from soil (Grimalt and Olive, 1993). Some of these processes may take very
long time and part of these compounds will remain in soil and become more resistant that depending on
environmental conditions (Barakat et al., 2001). Increasing hydrocarbons levels in the environment can cause
pollution to the natural resources (Buddhadasa et al., 2002; Douabul et al., 2012).
The objective of the present study is to determine the spatial and seasonal variations in concentrations of Total
Petroleum hydrocarbons in West Qurna-2 oil field Southern Iraq and to analyze with reference to its adverse
health effects.
