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"I heard a presentation by Dr. Patin and was impressed by his concepts regarding levels and thresholds of biological stresses and impacts. His ideas appeared to be both innovative and perceptive. Having just read those sections of his book on these topics I am even more impressed. His approach to scales and degrees of impacts and his concept of viewing biological stress in terms of a succession of mechanisms and response effects provide a useful and practical foundation for risk analyses. This approach also provides a valuable basis for consideration of tolerance and impairment levels into easily understandable concepts that can be presented to lay persons and nontechnical government agencies.

Dr. Patin has captured and synthesized a vast body of data and knowledge into a very practical text that should be standard reading for those involved in environmental aspects of the oil and gas industry."

Edward H. Owens, Ph.D.
Principal
Polaris Applied Sciences, Inc.
Suite 302, 755 Winslow Way East
Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110-2483, USA

office: 206-842-2951 (direct)
cell: 206-369-3679
fax: 206-842-2861
[email protected]
http://www.polarisappliedsciences.com

"An excellent textbook, provides a comprehensive environmental assessment on how oil and gas exploration and production affect marine ecosystem and what measures should be taken to minimize its impacts. Describing the factors associated with oil and gas development that contribute to environmental impacts. It is very useful to predict the negative impact of offshore oil and gas industry in early planning until decommissioning phase."

Best regards,
Sugiarto
Environmental Coordinator
Conoco Indonesia Inc. Ltd.;
Ph.D. Student on Environmental Sciences
University of Indonesia

"Last year I wrote a research paper for Sakhalin Environment Watch on offshore drilling waste disposal and found Dr Patin's book absolutely unique and indispensable because, quite apart from Dr Patin's own merits as a scientific writer, it makes available to the English-speaking reader such a vast amount of Russian-language research that would otherwise have remained inaccessible. The value of the Russian work he cites is that almost all of it is truly independent academic research."

Jonathan Wills M.A. Ph.D. M.Inst.Pet.
Environmental Consultancy and Research
Bressay, Shetland, Scotland

Marine Pollution Bulletin:

"During the latter part of 1999 I have been involved with reviewing reports and manuscripts that cover the consequences of the Exxon Valdez accident and oil spill. As part of this endeavor, I have frequently had to refer to other references, and there have been scores. One of these, the book being reviewed, was of considerable interest and use. The volume is a translation from the Russian, but unlike many translations it is very readable. The narrative flows well, and the figures and tables are well done and well placed. The volume consists of eight quite extensive chapters, most based on the Russian experience, but with considerable reference to the international literature...

Patin uses some 700 references to detail the consequences of exploration, production and accidental spills, illustrating and summarizing methods, case studies and effects with over four score figure and a like number of tables. Most of these are well drawn, clear and accurate. The extensive references follow each chapter, thus being immediately applicable and easily comparable with other references on the same subjects.

The chapters "Ecological and Fisheries Implications" and "Environmental Management and Regulation" will be especially useful to scientists and managers having responsibilities for such matters. I have reviewed scores of similar narratives and conclusions, but none having the same clarity of expression and preciseness; quite an accomplishment in a translation. Finally, this volume provides a unique summary of what is known about the environmental issues associated with offshore oil and gas exploration and development, often from the Russian and European perspectives (using materials not available to the Western reader), and generally free of excessive hyperbole. Truly a good read at any price."

JACK B. PEARCE
Marine Pollution Bulletin
North American Editor
Buzzards Bay Marine Laboratory
Falmouth, MA, USA

Bioscience:

"[Patin] provides a comprehensive assessment of what we do and don't know about how oil and gas development affect marine organisms and what measures should be taken to minimize impacts until we learn more...

[D]escribing the factors associated with oil and gas development that contribute to environmental impacts takes up only the first third of the book. Patin then goes on to devote the next 230 pages to the physiological and ecotoxicological mechanisms by which hydrocarbons affect marine organisms and how these mechanisms translate into ecological consequences. The treatment is comprehensive, clear, and synthetic. Well-designed tables summarize the chief pathways of hydrocarbon impacts, and a nifty figure shows at a glance how responses ranging from biochemical changes in cellular processes to reductions in community diversity or habitat availability vary in their overall ecological significance (low to high) and in the timing of their appearance in response to hydrocarbon releases (early to late)...

Patin concludes by developing four conceptual principles that he believes should guide oil and gas development. Collectively, these point toward an industry that is more ecocentric (to use his term) than in the past, factoring potential environmental impacts into the planning and economics of development and extraction and transportation activities and recognizing that regions differ in climatic, social, economic, and ecological characteristics. At the same time, he acknowledges that development of offshore oil and gas deposits is inevitable and that unconditional rejection and protest against development activities is as likely to be constructive as "protesting against the bad weather".

One would like to think that the resolution of such conflicts lies in science. The problem is that the science dealing with oil and gas impacts is still mostly posing questions rather than providing practical answers. This superbly translated book provides both the background and the blueprints for developing such answers. It is a book aimed at specialists, but anyone with an interest in the environmental problems of the world's oceans, in ecotoxicology, or in general issues of environmental pollution, will benefit from a close reading."

Read the full text of the book review at http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1042/10_50/66934911/p1/article.jhtml?term=patin.

JOHN A. WIEN
Bioscience

E-STREAMS:

"Patin, a Russian scientist with 40 years of service and 200 plus publications, is well suited to have written this book. As his introduction states, he has attempted to "give the environmental analysis of all main factors of the oil and gas industry's impact on marine life, fish stock and fisheries in shelf waters," to summarize "world and Russian experience in this field," to "attract attention to some major environmental problems emerging on the worlds shelves," and finally to "define some approaches and ways to take response...."

No small task, but Patin has done it and done it well. His explanations of complex situations and interactions are cogent and clear. Many flowcharts, diagrams and graphs support his comments, while selected photos of offshore rigs and maps help set the context. Each chapter contains an extensive reference list as well as numbered list of conclusions, which serves as a useful summary of the main points. An index is also provided.

It (the book) should be considered an important and worthwhile addition to upperlevel, graduate and specialized collections."

NANCY MOECKEL
Miami University
Brill Science Library, USA

The Journal of Ecotoxicology & Environmental Monitoring

"This book by Dr Stanislav Patin, a Russian Ecological Committee, provides detailed account on environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry...The book contains exhaustive references, tables and figures. It is very useful to those who are involved in the problems of pollution by offshore oil and gas industry. It is also useful to ecologists and environmentalists to know the offshore oil and gas industry and anthropogenic impact on the resources of fauna and flora, especially marine aquaculture and fisheries."

S.PALANICHAMI
The Journal of Ecotoxicology & Environmental Monitoring
Editor-in-Chief

Environmental Conservation:

"The work is well-illustrated with 87 figures, including two black and white photographs and 69 tables. The former are clear and informative, the latter useful compendia of , often large amounts of, factual information. ... The well referenced (the most recent reference is 1998 and there are over 700 in the volume ...!) text, the clear figures and tables, and the style will, I am sure, make it a popular text in any specialist library."

C.L.J.FRID
Dove Marine Laboratory
University of Newcastle
Cullercoats, North Shields

Environmental Pollution:

"It is … useful to have available a comprehensive review of this field, and Stanislav Patin has provided one. It is by no means the first book to tackle the subject, but its scope is broader than most because it covers the relatively inaccessible Russian literature as well as more familiar Western sources. Indeed, up to a quarter of the references are to Russian research on the extensive Arctic, Far Eastern and Caspian oil and gas fields. … this book is a valuable compendium of information from all , major oil – and gas- producing areas… and I can recommend it to all those who require a competent review of this important subject."

P. Matthiessen
Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
Rememberance Avenue
Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex CM0 8HA, UK

Waves:

"The book is available in hardback and provides a useful overview of known information about the impacts of these industries. It covers issues relating to impacts on fishing, toxicological characteristics of oil and gas in the marine environment, broader ecological implications of oil and gas development and issues relating to regulation. The book is easy to use with a detailed content list and index making for quick reference, as well as appropriate tables and figures. The reference list for each chapter provides a handy resource for those wanting to delve deeper. For those analyzing oil and gas industry development and exploration proposals or environmental impact assessments, the book allows relatively rapid understanding of key environmental issues and impacts.

Priced at $199 US, this book is not cheap. However given the paucity of well summarized and readily available information about this topic, it may well be a worthwhile investment for those who want to come to grips with some of the key environmental issues relating to the offshore oil and gas industry.

As Patin says in his conclusion, “modern science gives us more questions than answers about marine environment impacts of the oil and gas industry at this stage.” This book is a valuable resource for those interested in these very important questions."

Patrick O’Leary
NT Coordinator, Marine & Coastal Community Network, Australia
http://www.mccn.org.au

Spill Science and Technology Bulletin:

"Dr. Patin for more than 10 years was a member (Russian Representative to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). He was involved in pollution research for over 40 years. This book is written in eight comprehensive chapters that address first, the trends in the offshore oil and gas industry, then focuses on the structure and scale of anthropogenic impacts, followed by the factors of the impact on the marine environment and fishing. This is followed by biogeochemical cycles, biogeochemical and exotoxicological characteristics of natural gas in the marine environment. The last two chapter deal with ecological and fisheries impacts from offshore oil and gas development and the necessary regulation and environmental strategies to prevent or reduce environmental impacts. Someone might say you can write books about each of these areas and people have. But the significance of Dr. Patin’s book is that he has prepared excellent summaries for each of these areas as a chapter and they are integrated into one book."

MICHAEL A. CHAMP
ATRP Corporation
Falls Church, VA, USA

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