Geoelectrical Detection of Oil-contaminated Plumes in the Vicinity of Ploiesti Refineries, Romania

The contamination of the environment (topsoil, shallow sediments and aquifers) with oil contaminants resulted during more then seven decades in areas of the refineries located at the outskirts of Ploiesti city, Romania. Geoelectrical resistivity methods (VES and ERT) performed on profiles located in the vicinity of Petrobrazi and Petrotel refineries proved to be the most effective in locating the underground contamination by high resistivity anomalies. The high resistivity anomalies associated with the oil-contaminated plumes are locally interrupted and also characterised by variations in intensity. Such aspects are interpreted to be associated with inhomogeneities in compaction of the geological formations that host the aquifer and the floating oil contaminant. Local changes in the shallow geological structure affect the degree of underground contamination and induce supplementary difficulties in the interpretation of geoelectric results.