Guest post by David Middleton
BOEM rejects Atlantic G&G permits amidst industry criticism
01/06/2017Offshore staffWASHINGTON, D.C. and HOUSTON – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has denied six pending geophysical and geological permit applications to conduct airgun seismic surveys in the mid- and south planning areas of the Atlantic Ocean.
The bureau said that the decision is based on a number of factors, including a diminished need for additional seismic survey information because the Atlantic program area has been removed from the 2017-2022 outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing program.
“In the present circumstances and guided by an abundance of caution, we believe that the value of obtaining the geophysical and geological information from new airgun seismic surveys in the Atlantic does not outweigh the potential risks of those surveys’ acoustic pulse impacts on marine life,” said BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper. “Since federal waters in the mid- and south Atlantic have been removed from leasing consideration for the next five years, there is no immediate need for these surveys.”
International Association of Geophysical Contractors President Nikki Martin, National Ocean Industries Association President Randall Luthi, and API Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito all responded swiftly via statements to decry the decision.
Martin said it “demonstrates the administration’s continued lack of accountability to the American people. It is also one of many recent and rushed attempts to cater to extreme environmentalists in the last days of the administration, substituting politics for science.”
Luthi said: “This decision continues the Obama administration’s dismissal of scientifically-backed offshore policies and ignores the fact that seismic and other geophysical surveys have been safely conducted offshore in the US and around the world for more than 50 years.”
Milito said the announcement was the latest example of the current administration “completely disregarding America’s energy security needs and contradicts the will of the majority of Americans who support increased production of oil and natural gas.”
[…]
The Atlantic Ocean outer continental shelf is covered with 2d and 3d seismic data from the Gulf of Mexico, to Baffin Bay and the North Sea with one big gap: The United States east coast. Here’s a link to one geophysical contractor’s (TGS) geological and geophysical data coverage in the Atlantic Ocean. The absence of data on the US Atlantic OCS is as conspicuous as it is ridiculous.
Marine seismic surveys are conducted with overwhelming sensitivity to marine life, particularly cetaceans and the site clearance surveys which will have to be performed for politically favored (at least for another 11 days) offshore wind farms will employ the same sort of airgun sources that would be used for 2d and 3d seismic surveys. So the environmental argument is garbage.
The fact that the Atlantic OCS was withdrawn from the current 5-year leasing plan (which will almost certainly be revised this year) is no reason to not conduct the surveys. Without modern seismic data, there’s no way to evaluate the potential of these areas. The existing data consist of >40-yr old and very sparse 2d surveys shot in the 1970’s. This bit is truly ridiculous:
The BOEM said that additional factors leading to the denials include the possibility that the information would not be used if the Atlantic is not offered for future oil and gas leasing; the acquired data may become outdated if leasing is far in the future; and the probable development of lower impact survey technology before future geophysical and geological information would be needed.
This is akin to saying that ANWR Area 1002 should not be opened because it won’t be brought on production the moment the area is opened.
As a computer tech for a geophysical company, I witnessed first hand accounts of airgun tests performed near Seattle, witnessed by Alaska Fisheries biologists. In the test, airgun arrays were set off at a distance of two feet beside cages of salmon fingerlings. The fingerlings were unharmed.
In the face of whales washed up on the beach – deep sea whales who suffered brain damage from high frequency sonar – whales who fled from the depths to flee the pain and beached on our shore.
And here You are claiming You “understand”?
Are you Nuts?
There is absolutely no excess for this misery!
No Excuse!!!
Whales have been washing up on the beaches since pre-Columbus times. They (the beached whales, dolphins, and porpoises) were so commonly found that shore-harvesting became a major food source and a common Indian and Colonial industry from VA to Canada. A Looooong time before ship-side whaling was started.
Good fracking grief!
Conspicuously absent from the list are marine seismic surveys. Sonar is the closest match: “Some biologists and scientists speculate that whales may become disoriented, sick and confused by the use of man-made sonar.” I like how they differentiate biologists from scientists. Like sonar, some biologists speculate that marine airguns may cause whale beachings, despite a total lack of evidence.
And despite this total lack of evidence, marine geophysical contractors take extreme precautions in order to avoid disturbing marine mammals.
http://www.iagc.org/marine-environment.html
http://internationalgeophysicaltxprod.weblinkconnect.com/uploads/4/5/0/7/45074397/seismic-survey-factsheet_final_iagc.pdf
You know the motivation of whales! Where did you study whale motivation?
Doc, we conducted similar experiments in many of the lakes in east Texas which yielded the same results: no harm to any of the fish or other denizen.
Unfortunately this, like so many aspects of the O&G industry, has become too politicized and detrimentally impacted by the ‘fake news’ phenomenon. The International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC) website contains a number of good references as well as industry guidelines for marine seismic acquisition.
See: http://www.sbexp.com/media/hsseq/iagc/iagc-protectingmarineenvir-june2014.pdf and http://www.iogp.ord/sound-marine-life for additional information.
Is there no scientific value to a complete underwater seismic survey OTHER than the detection of fossil fuels? It seems, to me, that such geological data would have value for a better understanding of geology of the planet. Or am I out to lunch? GK
Since we primarily use these data to interpret structural geology, stratigraphy, depositional environments and reconstruct the geologic history of sedimentary basins… The answer is: Yes. Since the Atlantic OCS sedimentary basins are primarily Mesozoic carbonate systems, it’s unlikely that direct or even indirect hydrocarbon indicators will be present.
The oil companies who underwrite the surveys will have a period of exclusive access to the data. After this period, anyone who can afford to purchase licenses to the data can have access to it. My guess is that it won’t be cheap.
The BOEM gets immediate access to all of the data and it can eventually be made available to academic institutions and government agencies.
I get suspicious of quoted sources with punctuation errors, especially promiscuous apostrophes. “Beachings” and “strandings” do not require the apostrophes shown in the quote because they are simple plurals. On the other hand, “earth’s” does take the apostrophe since it is a singular possessive. The biggest offender, of course, is its: the word “its”, meaning belonging to it, is a possessive pronoun that does not take an apostrophe, nor does any other pronoun. The word “it’s” with the apostrophe is a contraction for “it is” or “it has.”
Aside from that, the constant interruptions from Clueless McClure get irritating after a bit.
https://www.google.at/s?q=Abigail+Ross+Hopper&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8&ctxs=2&pf=c&ctxsl_alternate_term=Abigail&sns=1#scso=uid
‘ Abigail Hopper (@Director_Hopper) | …
https://twitter.com › director_hopper
Abigail Ross Hopper Former Director of BOEM (January 6, 2015 – January 6, 2017) This account is no longer active & will be archived’
Abigail…
David, v’ !
My god’s are smiling.
I swear what my people swears – to
Teutates – god of world
Taranis – god of war
and
Esus – god of men:
in winter times lost in the garage; comes spring comes daddy home.
https://mobile.twitter.com/director_hopper
My Regina isn’t listed here.
https://m.facebook.com/search/?search=people&search_source=search_bar&query=Regina&=Suchen