Heavy fuel oils (HFO) are produced from the refining of crude oils, and have high specific gravities and high viscosities. In recent years, spills of HFO have increased in the environment, and are of great concern because they are difficult to clean up. Spilled HFO is likely to become submerged, and can become stranded if fresh HFO coats benthic substrates or if weathered HFO sinks as tarballs. Conversely, lighter oils float on the surface and their components disperse and become diluted in the water column. There is a research need to assess the unique ecological risks of HFO that can sink and contaminate spawning shoals of fish. Chronic toxicity of HFO to fish embryos is correlated with exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) that become bioavailable from spilled HFO to identify under which spill conditions fish populations are at greatest risk. The results of this research demonstrate that: (1) Stranded HFO is a significant source of PAH to the receiving environment and causes chronic toxicity to embryonic fish; (2) Tarballs and weathered HFO cause less toxicity than fresh HFO, likely a consequence of physical limitations to PAH release; (3) HFO 7102 samples collected from an HFO spill in Wabamun Lake, Alberta, are less toxic than HFO 6303; (4) HFO is at least 2-fold more toxic than Medium South American (MESA), a well-studied reference crude oil, coincident with 3-fold higher concentrations of alkyl PAH, namely alkyl phenanthrenes. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2011-07-25 10:43:05.759

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On 18 March 1938 Mexican labour problems in the oil industry culminated in Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas' decision to expropriate the holdings of 17 American, Dutch and British oil companies.1 The purpose of this thesis is to fill the gaps in the literature on the Mexican oil nationalisation by analyzing the policies of the oil companies, and comparing and analyzing in detail how policy was determined in both Britain and the United States at a time when Britain was trying to win US cooperation in the face of increasing hostilities in Europe and the Far East. While Whitehall wanted US cooperation in taking a firm stance against Mexico, Washington refused. Washington's failure to cooperate with London is consistent with its resentment of Britain's still extensive trade relations with several South American countries and its attempts to form preferential trade agreements at the Ottawa conference of 1932 and subsequently an exclusive sterling bloc. Also, Washington's pursuit of the Good Neighbor policy precluded any association with 1 The companies included Mexican Eagle, which was managed and partly owned by the British and Dutch Royal/Dutch Shell, as well as subsidiaries of the American companies Standard Oil of California, Standard Oil of New Jersey and Sinclair Oil. the tough policy adopted by Britain. Despite its refusal to be associated with Britain on this matter, Washington ended up taking a hard line towards Mexico, but American officials went to great lengths to make policy appear consistent with the Good Neighbor policy. Totally reliant on overseas oil at a time when war seemed imminent, policy-makers in Britain immediately decided to prevent other countries from following Mexico's example by showing Mexico's policy to be a failure. Officials in Whitehall responsible for oil policy believed that secure access to foreign oil necessitated British ownership and control of oil supplies abroad whenever possible. Not only did Whitehall's concern about oil supplies in war focus policymakers, but the governmental machinery for formation of oil policy allowed for a consistent policy towards Mexico. Washington on the other hand lacked such machinery, and American officials displayed inconsistency in their policy toward Mexico. Also, the United States had plentiful indigenous supplies of oil, and Washington's main concern, to the disappointment of Whitehall, was increased trade with Mexico and other nations, rather than defending the more specific interests of the oil companies whose properties had been expropriated in Mexico.

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The Palaeocene and Eocene Forth Field is located in Quad. 9, Block 23/b, adjacent to the East Shetland Platform. The Fourth reservoir consists of a series of massive well sorted, medium to fine grained, turbidite sands which contain biodegraded oil and gas. The textural homogeneity of the Forth sands suggests that sedimentary facies was not a major diagenetic control. The timing of oil migration and the periodicity of oil leakage controlled the relative paragenesis in different sand units. Pervasive ferroan and non ferroan calcite cemented sand horizons dominate the Forth paragenetic sequence. Bitumen filled inclusions within these cements indicate oil emplacement and carbonate cementation occurred simultaneously. Calcite oxygen isotope results suggest East Shetland Platform meteoric water, flushed the reservoir, biodegrading the migrated oil and displacing the original seawater. Biodegradation of oil took place at the palaeo-oil water contact, producing a laterally extensive cementation zone. Frequent oil leakage may have produced a series of different palaeo-oil water contacts which became preferential cementation sites. The Palaeocene Balmoral Field is located approximately 100kms to the south of Forth in Quad. 16, Block 21. To a large extent, the distribution of non-carbonate diagenetic phases in the Balmoral Field is controlled by lithoclast composition and the relative abundance of interbedded shales. Non ferroan and ferroan calcite concretions preferentially precipitated where there were localised accumulations of organic matter. The concretions precipitated at < 500m burial depth, sourced by bacterial oxidation and sulphate reduction of organic matter in meteoric pore fluids. Meteoric water is thought to have been derived from the East Shetland Platform to the north of Balmoral. Oil migrated into Balmoral during the Oligocene, post-dating meteoric flushing. Laterally extensive carbonate cements, formed in association with oil biodegradation, have the potential to compartmentalise a reservoir. The distribution of these cements within Tertiary reservoirs adjacent to the East Shetland Platform is likely to be controlled by the relative timing of meteoric flushing and oil migration.