Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter
\nPublished: Thursday, September 5, 2013<\/p>\n
HOUSTON — The federal government is racing to roll out a new mapping
\ntool that it hopes will lead to a truce between offshore drillers and
\nfishing interests over the spike in rig decommissioning and tear-downs.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement hopes by the end of
\nthis month to have the basic framework for a geographic information
\nsystem mapping tool that would be used to track the life span of the
\nthousands of offshore structures and platforms standing in the Gulf of
\nMexico, hundreds of which are slated for removal. But finalizing it
\nwill take many more months or even years and will require the input of
\ncharter fishermen, recreational diving companies, shrimp boat captains
\nand anyone else who has a stake in the Gulf’s natural resources.<\/p>\n
The aim is to defuse the tension between charter fishermen and divers,
\nwho depend on the artificial reef environments created by the rigs for
\ntheir livelihood, and the very owners of those offshore structures, who
\nare legally required to remove them when they are no longer in use. Rig
\nowners also fear the legal liability they are exposed to should a
\ndefunct rig cause an accident or suffer storm damage.<\/p>\n
In an interview, David Smith, a public affairs specialist at BSEE, said
\nthe map that he and his team hope to complete this month will just be a
\nbare-bones version of the final product. The ultimate aim, he said, is
\nto develop a tool that enables all interested parties to know ahead of
\ntime when a rig might be coming down and whether that structure would
\nbe a good candidate for the federal Rigs to Reefs program.<\/p>\n
BSEE sees Rigs to Reefs as the key to bridging the divide between the
\nfishermen and offshore oil and gas companies. Charter fishing interests
\nhave been lobbying hard in Congress for a temporary moratorium on rig
\ndecommissioning and removal, something that oil and gas companies and
\nthe decommissioning industry are eager to avoid.<\/p>\n
“You have the older platforms that have created this temporary
\nartificial habitat for fish and other marine life, but they’re also the
\nones that are probably going to come out the soonest,” Smith explained.
\n“What we found is that there needs to be a lot more collaboration in
\nthe planning process for decommissioning.”<\/p>\n
Although the platforms, caissons and other offshore structures are the
\nprivate property of oil and gas companies, commercial and charter
\nfishermen insist that their voices should be added to the discussion on
\nwhat to do with an aging offshore structure. At the same time they and
\nsome state agencies complain that the Rigs to Reefs program is too slow
\nand laden with bureaucracy. Six federal agencies have some say in what
\nhappens to a structure resting above an abandoned offshore well.<\/p>\n
Capt. Gary Jarvis, former president of the Corpus Christi, Texas-based
\nCharter Fishermen’s Association (CFA), expressed some skepticism that
\nBSEE’s planned reforms of Rigs to Reefs will work, but he is satisfied
\nthat at least BSEE is hearing his industry’s concerns.<\/p>\n
Still, he and others feel that nearly all offshore structures should be
\nreefed in place after they are no longer of use to the industry. That
\ncurrently happens with only a small fraction of them.<\/p>\n
“Ideally for us, we would say reef them right where they’re at,” Jarvis
\nsaid. “That would be a good compromise.”<\/p>\n
Delicate balancing act<\/p>\n
Once the GIS map is in place, Smith said he hopes to organize a cross-
\nindustry commission to help manage it and keep it updated.
\nRepresentatives of charter fishing and dive trip operators could
\nidentify which structures are of most value to them, and oil and gas
\ninterests across the table could provide updates on the status of these
\nstructures, notifying whether they plan to tear them down and how
\nquickly.<\/p>\n
Representatives of Gulf state agencies that assume responsibility for
\nartificial reefs created in Rigs to Reefs would also be at the table to
\ngive guidance on whether these structures can be folded into the
\nprogram. Not all are eligible to become artificial reefs.<\/p>\n
“We’re trying to develop a GIS map as a planning tool, and then we want
\nto develop a collaborative planning body that will sort of be an
\ninformation repository and facilitate a dialogue,” Smith said.<\/p>\n
It’s a delicate balancing act that will attempt, for the first time, to
\nbring all Gulf of Mexico commercial interests — fishing, recreation,
\nand oil and gas — together to hash out compromises over their
\ncompeting needs.<\/p>\n
Though charter fishermen may want to keep all structures in place,
\nshrimp boat captains by and large would like to see all those defunct
\nplatforms removed to avoid damaging their equipment. Oil and gas firms
\nare keen to rid themselves of liability for these defunct platforms as
\nsoon as possible. Meanwhile, thousands of workers are employed in the
\nGulf Coast region by companies that tear down platforms and salvage the
\n“idle iron” for scrap metal.<\/p>\n
The committee or planning commission that he hopes to form would “take
\nall of the input from the shrimping community, from the trawlers, from
\nthe fishing and recreational charters, commercial diving community, all
\nof those different organizations and bring it all together, and then
\nhave regular update meetings and have a place where people can come and
\ntalk about what’s working and what’s not,” Smith said.<\/p>\n
Complicating matters further, the science surrounding artificial
\nreefing is still in its infancy. The ecological benefits of artificial
\nversus natural reefs is still hotly debated and will be the principal
\ntopic of discussion at the forthcoming Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries
\nInstitute conference in Corpus Christi, Texas, slated for November.<\/p>\n
Wes Tunnell, associate director of the Harte Research Institute at
\nTexas A&M University, Corpus Christi, explained that the current debate
\nswirls around whether artificial reefs generate new populations of fish
\nspecies or simply concentrate existing ones. He said there is evidence
\nfor both.<\/p>\n
Gulf of Mexico researchers are also still trying to develop a sound,
\nstandardized technique for studying and monitoring artificial reefs,
\ncounting the populations of fish that call them home and comparing this
\ndata with what researchers collect at natural reef sites. “There’s
\nnever been a really good way to count the fish around these artificial
\nreefs and have kind of an objective method for doing that,” Tunnell
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
But there is some general understanding of artificial reefs among the
\nscientific community. Tunnell indicated that there’s evidence to
\nsuggest that, though natural reefs are more biodiverse, artificial
\nreefs may actually harbor larger numbers of fish and therefore might be
\nmore productive for fisheries.<\/p>\n
Harte and other research centers are willing to aid BSEE’s efforts to
\nreach a general compromise, but Tunnell said his institute’s position
\non the decommissioning and Rigs to Reefs controversy will be strictly
\nneutral.<\/p>\n
“We like to be what we call the honest broker,” he said. “We want to
\nkeep providing the best information until we get to the right
\nsolution.”<\/p>\n
Hurricane’s wake<\/p>\n
The hurricane seasons of 2005 to 2008 brought this issue to the fore.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of platforms were damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina,
\nRita, Gustav and Ike. In investigating the problem, BSEE discovered
\nthat more than half of the damaged structures were in disuse, sitting
\nabandoned for years. Fixing the damage cost hundreds of millions of
\ndollars.<\/p>\n
The 2010 Macondo well blowout and oil spill delayed action somewhat,
\nbut after the dust settled from that incident, BSEE issued a notice to
\noil and gas companies reminding them that they need to demonstrate a
\nplan for what they intend to do with abandoned platforms within five
\nyears. The options include selling them to other companies, reusing
\nthem for developing new wells, reefing or removal.<\/p>\n
Smith is adamant that the Notice to Lessees issued in October 2010 was
\nnot a directive that companies must remove abandoned structures.
\nRather, the notice was meant to remind industry of the existing
\nregulations in place.<\/p>\n
Smith estimated that the Gulf is home to nearly 2,900 production
\nplatforms, but he stressed that, of these, 700 to 800 may have to be
\ndealt with as they near the end of their life spans. And even then the
\nlaw doesn’t require that they be removed, only that the owners come up
\nwith a plan for what to do with them next.<\/p>\n
Still, many in the industry acted as if the NTL was ordering immediate
\ncompliance.<\/p>\n
BSEE estimates that 285 structures were removed from the Gulf in 2011,
\nup from 153 in 2008. Permit requests for rig decommissionings rose from
\n254 submitted in 2010 to 319 in 2011. Fishermen and divers grew alarmed
\nas hundreds of platforms were pulled, mostly from the western Gulf off
\nthe coast of Texas. Structures that they’ve depended on for years
\nseemingly vanished overnight.<\/p>\n
“Especially off South Texas where we are, we’ve just had so few rigs so
\nwhen they pulled out 30 or however many there were in our region, the
\nfishermen and the diving industry, they felt that tremendously,” said
\nJennifer Wetz, a researcher at the Harte Institute. “That was huge to
\nthem.”<\/p>\n
The Charter Fishermen’s Association and other groups and individual
\nfishermen responded by getting politically active, pressing their local
\nmembers of Congress to get involved. Last year lawmakers proposed the
\ndecommissioning moratorium. Although that effort failed, the speed and
\nstrength with which fishing and diving interests acted got the
\nattention of offshore oil and gas firms. The dispute was a top item for
\ndiscussion among industry representatives at the Decommissioning and
\nAbandonment Summit held in Houston earlier this year.<\/p>\n
J. Dale Shively, artificial reef program leader at the Texas Parks and
\nWildlife Department, expressed sympathy for the fishing interests but
\nsuggested they should have seen this problem coming. Offshore platforms
\nare meant to be temporary installations with their owners free to do
\nwith them as they wish, as long as it complies with the law.<\/p>\n
“One of the sticking points really is that the public doesn’t accept
\nthat these platforms are private property,” Shively said. “They don’t
\nbelong to the public. They don’t belong to the federal government or
\nthe state. They belong to the oil company.”<\/p>\n
CFA member Jarvis, however, argues that these structures become far
\nmore than just a matter for the private owner because they create
\nvaluable fish habitat, an asset that is tightly controlled throughout
\nthe Gulf. Simply removing them when the companies want to would destroy
\nthat habitat and the fish that reside there, an action that would
\nresult in severe consequences for fishing interests but almost none for
\noil and gas firms, he said.<\/p>\n
“There are all kinds of federal laws and regulations about live coral,
\nand there’s nothing on those oil rig legs but live coral. They get a
\nfree pass on that,” Jarvis said. “The fishing reefs, also known as oil
\nrigs, are a valuable asset to the fishery, not only from the
\nfisherman’s perspective but from the fish perspective too.”<\/p>\n
Challenges<\/p>\n
Shively agrees with BSEE that the Rigs to Reefs program will be a
\ncentral factor to satisfying all sides of the issue, but he complained
\nthat for a while now the program allowed too little flexibility for
\nstate agencies like his to grab structures before they are removed and
\nrecommend them for reefing.<\/p>\n
He also echoed Tunnell’s point that the science of artificial reefing
\nis still being worked out. Texas Parks and Wildlife is relying on
\nresearchers at the Harte Institute; University of Texas, Brownsville;
\nand Texas A&M University, Galveston, for help in studying Texas’ three
\nprimary artificial reef areas. Getting a fix on the value and proper
\nmanagement of the Rigs to Reefs program is a never-ending challenge, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
“We don’t ever predict that we’re done,” Shively said. “We put
\nmaterials down that are serving as a reef, but the scientific questions
\nare if you put more material, do you get more fish, or do you at some
\npoint get all this competition and the population decreases because now
\nyou’re bringing in more predators?”<\/p>\n
Another challenge is the expense. Shively estimates that a typical
\nreefing job costs more than $500,000. A near-shore artificial reef he’s
\nworking to put together this month near Corpus Christi using more than
\n400 concrete pillars will run about $700,000. Another near Matagorda,
\nspread across 160 acres, will probably cost $1.2 million to complete,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
“Every reefing job is expensive,” Shively said. “We’re hoping to get
\nsome of this Deepwater Horizon money to help with it. It’s in the
\nplans, but we haven’t gotten official approval yet.”<\/p>\n
Though reefing can save an operator potentially millions of dollars,
\nthe time-consuming and cumbersome process — and restrictions on where
\nand how rigs can be reefed — means that far more concrete and steel
\nwill still be removed than left in the Gulf of Mexico. Last year BSEE
\nreported that the oil and gas industry requested approval to scrap
\nabout 330 offshore structures. Twenty-seven were recommended for the
\nRigs to Reefs program, or about 8 percent of the total. So far this
\nyear the agency has received permit applications to scrap 121 rigs and
\nto reef 15.<\/p>\n
The GIS mapping system that BSEE will try to roll out later this month
\nwill be the beginning of attempts to bring more structure and order to
\nthe Rigs to Reefs program and to provide fishermen and divers with
\nenough information so that they can know precisely what’s happening
\nwith their favorite reefs. If such a structure is scheduled for
\ndecommissioning, fishing and diving interests would be able to flag it
\nto state officials or BSEE for possible inclusion in Rigs to Reefs. If
\npopular structures are deemed unsuitable for reefing, then the divers
\nand fishers can at least learn of this ahead of time, giving them an
\nopportunity to seek out replacements to visit to keep their businesses
\ngoing.<\/p>\n
Smith said he needs the cooperation of all sides to make the experiment
\nwork.<\/p>\n
“In order to get the map to work, we have to get all the BSEE data on
\nit, we need to get all the shrimping data on it, we need to get all the
\nfishing data on it,” he said. “It would help if the fishing and diving
\ncommunity could point out those platforms that are really important to
\nthem and make the states aware of those so that the states know where
\nto look for them.”<\/p>\n
Though he thinks it’s been taking BSEE too long to put this mapping
\ntool together, Smith believes this step will prove to be the easy part
\nof this entire effort.<\/p>\n
“The hard part is coming up with some sort of cooperative agreement or
\nsomething for a body to put all this stuff together,” he said. “I’m not
\nsure exactly how that’s going to happen yet. We’re still working on
\nthat part.”<\/p>\n
Special thanks to Richard Charter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter Published: Thursday, September 5, 2013 HOUSTON — The federal government is racing to roll out a new mapping tool that it hopes will lead to a truce between offshore drillers and fishing interests over the spike in rig decommissioning and tear-downs. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement hopes by the … Continue reading Energy & Environment: Regulator hopes Gulf mapping tool can defuse tension between drillers, fishermen<\/span>