Offshore Well Completion and Stimulation Using Hydraulic Fracturing and Other Technologies: Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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6 Environmental Considerations, Advanced Technologies, and Solutions
6 Environmental Considerations, Advanced Technologies, and Solutions
Pages 39-48
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From page 39... ...
James Ray, Oceanic Environmental Solutions, LLC Ray explained that although industry, regulators, and scientists have decades of both laboratory and real-world environmental science data related to offshore oil and gas operations, they do not (and may never) know everything about the effects of oil and gas on offshore ecosystems.
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From page 40... ...
He encouraged participants to review two general permits from the Gulf of Mexico that regulate discharges, including the Western Gulf of Mexico General Permit GMG 2900005 and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico General Permit GEG460000.6 Ray explained that permits are updated every 5 years based on new details, standards, and analytical techniques, and a new permit for the Central and Western Gulf was released just prior to this workshop. Much data have been collected on a range of environmental programs including fate and effects of water column and seafloor discharges using dispersion modeling and field verification, methods development for toxicity testing and analyte measurements, laboratory studies on toxicity and bioaccumulation, containment studies, baseline studies, and acoustic effects on the marine environment.
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From page 41... ...
Montagna referred back to the existing ecological and environmental issues discussed by William Brown, BOEM, during the keynote session of the workshop and highlighted oil spills, bottom disturbance, noise, and lighting as the most pressing issues. He explained, however, that when offshore activities go according to plan, the effects are localized, and there are no long-term chronic effects.
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From page 42... ...
Prompted by a question about contaminant effects versus ecological or reef effects, he conducted further experiments that revealed that the offshore platforms actually serve as artificial reefs. Montagna explained that while there is some contamination and some disturbance, he believes the positives of the reef effect outweigh the negatives, when offshore operations are normal.
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From page 43... ...
Habel emphasized that while such practices were always occurring, they are now officially regulated. The Division's sister agency, the California State Water Resources Control Board, oversees groundwater monitoring plans (including sampling and neighbor notification)
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From page 44... ...
According to Habel, there were no well failures associated with hydraulic fracturing and no emergency responses to spills or releases in 2016. Air Emissions from Offshore Platforms Desikan Sundararajan, Statoil Sundararajan suggested that emissions management in the onshore is more pressing than that in the offshore -- offshore operations are already heavily regulated and thus have better emissions control than onshore operations.
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From page 45... ...
Sundararajan explained that there is a dramatic difference in methane emissions between the offshore and onshore worlds. In terms of safety and process instrumentation, the onshore world is not as heavily regulated as the offshore world, which is why it is so important to invest more money and research in understanding the true footprint of methane emissions in the onshore arena.
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From page 46... ...
Montagna reiterated that synthesis is critical -- for example, the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative has dedicated $50 million in research grants toward synthesis activities in support of the offshore industry. He emphasized that humans are embedded in the environment, and so it is important to model the fact that people are connected to each other and the environment in the framework and context of ecosystem services.
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From page 47... ...
Habel said that the Groundwater Protection Council created a national database for operators to voluntarily load data about hydraulic fracturing, and the state of California created an additional space which contains extensive data on specific amounts and types of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. Habel added that even though all operator reports are also available to the public (which would include information on groundwater monitoring, downhole pressures, and post-fracturing monitoring, for example)
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From page 48... ...
He also emphasized that data generated from environmental studies allow operators to continue working in the offshore environment by balancing operational and environmental concerns.
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