Guideline for environmental monitoring in Sudanese marine waters in connection with offshore oil and gas industry activities

Summary

The unique coastal and marine ecosystems of Sudan need protection against anthropogenic influences. Monitoring is required to control that industrial operations in Sudanese marine waters meet environmental quality standards. This report includes a suggestion of guidelines for monitoring in Sudanese Red Sea waters; with a special attention to oil and gas industrial activities. The guidelines provide instructions to how systematic offshore monitoring studies can be performed to collect data required for documenting degrees of compliance with environmental regulatory demands. The report highlights the need for an efficient national legislation targeted to prevent habitat destruction, chemical pollution and other manmade impacts to Red Sea ecosystems. The report also describes the role of monitoring as a key element in assessing the effectiveness of measures adopted for minimising environmental impacts. The present work represents a collaboration between Sudan and Norway and the suggested guidelines were developed as a synthesis of Norwegian monitoring guidelines and monitoring procedures developed for Red Sea environments.