Veteran marine science advocate Jerry Schubel, former president of Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific, is among those pushing for offshore oil platforms to be transformed for new ocean uses. He points out that the underwater portion of the structures already are a boon to marine life.
“They have enormous value as ecosystems because of the life that has grown on and around them,” he said.
He points out that other states have rigs-to-reefs programs — and California does as well, though it needs funding before it can function. Once the ball gets rolling, oil companies could be tapped to cover costs with fees drawn from the money they would save by not having to haul dismantled rigs ashore. Schubel estimated that turning platforms into reefs could cut decommissioning costs in half.
But Schubel says artificial reefs should be just the beginning. How about fish farms? Research labs? Windmills? Hotels for divers?
“The uses,” he said, “are limited only by our imagination.”
As we await the outcome of the nationally important gubernatorial race here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, I wanted to acknowledge the political appointees whom I had the opportunity to work for in the OCS oil and gas program. While they had different backgrounds and interests, all respected the importance of the program and were committed to safe operations and protection of the marine environment. Remarkably, they all managed the OCS program in a rather non-partisan manner.
Republican Appointees
Democrat Appointees
Notes
Harold Doley
Don Kash
Dr. Kash was Chief of the Conservation Div. (USGS), which was roughly the equivalent of BSEE Director
Bill Bettenberg
Tom Fry
Bill Bettenberg was a career Federal employee appointed as MMS Director by a Republican administration
Bob Kallman
Cynthia Quarterman
Barry Williamson
Walt Rosenbusch
Scott Sewell
Tom Kitsos
Dr. Kitsos was a career Federal employee appointed MMS Director by a Democrat administration
U.S. oil production plummeted and is unlikely to recover to pre-pandemic levels. The Gulf of Mexico will not be picking up the slack. GoM production peaked in August 2019 at 2.044 million BOPD. Absent increased exploration, that peak will never be exceeded.
More than 400 private jets carrying world leaders and business executives to Cop26 will blast 13,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Matt Finch, of the Transport and Environment campaign group, said: “The average private jet, and we are not talking Air Force One, emits two tons of CO2 for every hour in flight.
It can’t be stressed enough how bad private jets are for the environment, it is the worst way to travel by miles.Our research has found that most journeys could easily be completed on scheduled flights.
“Private jets are very prestigious but it is difficult to avoid the hypocrisy of using one while claiming to be fighting climate change.
1.60 to 1.74 million BOPD were shut-in from 8/28 to 8/31, reducing the average daily production for August to 1.535 million barrels per day, a net reduction of 312,000 BOPD from July. The September production figure will be significantly lower given that more than half of the GoM production was shut-in for 13 days in September and several hundred thousand BOPD were shut-in for the rest of the month. September production will be released at the end of November.
According to ExxonMobil Guyana, the Liza Unity FPSO is the world’s first FPSO to be awarded for its sustainable design, documentation and operational procedures. The vessel has been awarded the SUSTAIN-1 notation by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), which is the Classification Society for the unit.
Based on the schematic for the sister FPSO Liza Destiny (below), gas that is not used to power the vessel will be reinjected.
The quality of offshore facilities and the attention to safety and environmental details have improved dramatically over time. The offshore industry deserves recognition for their efforts in that regard.
Due to water currents and a robust emergency clean-up effort, local beaches and ocean were re-opened on Oct. 11. By mid October, walking along the wide, sandy beaches there’s no sign of the spill as dolphins and surfers share the waves against a backdrop of cargo ships, oil rigs and the soft silhouette of Catalina Island.
“Right now, there’s high confidence that the spill was approximately 24,696 gallons. The exact number won’t be able to be verified until the investigation has been completed. But there’s high confidence in that number,” Shaye said.
“Our world environment is very resilient, which is a positive thing,” Shaye said. “As far as the birds and wildlife; there have been some deaths, as happens in this kind of situation. But quite a few have been rehabilitated and released back into their environment.
But certainly, the supply and — and OPEC and putting additional pressure on OPEC is something that — that, certainly, our national security team will continue to do.
I will also note that, as it relates to gas prices, we remain concerned about trends we have seen where, even as supply has increased at times over the last several months, we’ve still seen heightened prices.
The FTC — we’ve asked the FTC to look into that. They’ve said they were doing that.
