While in its essence an environmental solution, the practice of converting offshore platforms into artificial reefs is usually a matter of financial common sense. Number crunchers working for oil and gas companies weigh a host of factors when determining if a decommissioned platform is better off scrapped or reefed.
As 10/12 Industry Report details in a feature from the new quarterly issue, it’s a decision that’s typically tied closely to the bottom line.
Louisiana is one of the biggest proponents of artificial reef creation in the U.S. Through its Artificial Reef Program, which falls under the federal Rigs to Reefs Policy as overseen by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the state utilizes obsolete oil and gas platforms as habitats for many of Louisiana’s coastal fishes. Since the state program’s inception in 1986, 71 oil and gas-related companies have participated by donating the “jackets” of decommissioned oil and gas structures. Some 390 structures have been reefed in Louisiana waters.
Mike McDonough, artificial reef coordinator at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, says cost determines a platform’s eventual fate, impacted by its distance from shore and proximity to designated reef locations.
“If you’ve got a shallow water platform that’s close to shore, it’s usually cheaper to just take it to shore for scrapping,” he adds. “When the distance to the reef site is too big, that drives up the cost of reefing and drives down the financial savings.”
One potential cost-saving move could encourage participation—new LDWF regulations allow some platforms to reef in place, thereby negating the expense of transporting the structures.
Over 7,000 offshore oil and gas platforms have been installed in the Gulf of Mexico since 1947. For whatever reasons, fish and other marine life find these structures to be an extremely useful part of their ecosystem. (One study of rigs in the Pacific found they hosted seven times the aquatic population of even the rich natural reefs of the south Pacific.)
In addition to meeting the world’s energy needs, the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry has literally formed one of the world’s most extensive de facto artificial reef systems. Simply removing the rigs after they are no longer in use equates to “a public loss of productive marine habitat,” the LDWF website notes.
Read the full feature, find more stories on Louisiana industry in the new quarterly issue of 10/12 Industry Report and be sure to sign up for a free subscription. Send your feedback, story ideas and company news to editor@1012industryreport.com.
