California is the offshore region where new production could come onstream quickest. And turns out there are actually environmental arguments for allowing new leasing there - because of the natural seeps offshore CA. Though its the center of the irrational oil-is-bad idealogy, usually held by jetsetters. Here's some interesting info:
Natural seeps release about 1000 barrels a week offshore CA
Q. How much oil is spilled or "leaked" from OCS natural gas and oil operations?
A. In 1969, a Federal platform offshore Santa Barbara experienced a blowout in one of its wells; an estimated 80,000 barrels (3,360,000 gallons) or oil was released into the ocean. The result of this incident was at least twofold: (1) the environmental conscience of the Nation was raised and the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental legislation was passed and (2) requirements for safety devices imposed by the Federal Government forever changed offshore operations. There has not been a spill of this size from OCS operations since the Santa Barbara spill.
OCS operations are carefully conducted and regulated to ensure safe and environmentally sound operations. Since the tragic oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969, about 833 barrels of oil have been spilled as a result of OCS natural gas and oil operations offshore California. This spillage represents the cumulative loss from cups or a barrel at any given time, but for a 150 barrel spill from a pipeline in State waters carrying exclusively OCS production to shore. The California nearshore and coastal areas are replete with natural seeps. It is estimated that over 1,000 barrels of oil each week are released into the environment from these seeps. (From the Coal Oil Point seeps alone, almost 200 barrels a day may be entering the ocean.) There is some evidence that commercial production of the reservoirs offshore has reduced the amount of oil that would naturally seep into the marine environment by reducing pressure in the reservoirs.
Q. Who makes sure that the oil companies operate safely and do not pollute?
A. The companies are held responsible for safety to the environment and employees. Nevertheless, every day of the year, MMS inspectors are offshore scrutinizing drilling and production operations to ensure that the operations are being conducted safely and that the environment is protected. The MMS inspectors conduct unannounced inspections on each facility on a routine basis and inspect each facility offshore California at least once a week. Furthermore, there is an extensive annual inspection of each facility sometimes lasting 2-3 weeks, depending on the complexity of the facility.
Any violation found is reported and resolution pursued to ensure that corrective action is taken. The MMS has broad powers of enforcement and can require extreme measures, such as facility shutdowns and civil penalties, if warranted. Any violation which does or could result in loss of life or environmental damage is considered serious and is reviewed for civil penalty assessment.
Q. Why not move the platforms further offshore where they cannot be seen?
A. The platforms have to be located where the oil is. Oil occurs and accumulates where there are thick sedimentary rocks. Off California, this occurs in the nearshore basins. In recent years, the extended-reach well technology has improved markedly, resulting in the ability to use fewer platforms for the recovery of resources. In the Santa Barbara Channel, for example, ExxonMobil is using this technology to produce oil from 4 1/2 miles away from the wellhead on Platform Hondo. ExxonMobil is now producing the Sacate field using extended-reach well technology, obviating the need for an additional platform. As this technology improves, additional production from existing facilities becomes more promising.
Q. Where does tar on the beach come from?
A. Oil, tar, and gas seeps are common along the California coast. These seeps are part of the natural environment, and geological and archeological evidence shows that seepage has occurred throughout California for thousands of years. Scientists have found that seepage from one of the largest seeps known offshore Coal Oil Point ranged from 150-170 barrels per day. At least 2,000 active oil and gas seeps have been mapped in waters offshore California.
mms.gov
More on CA oil seeps:
bubbleology.com
California’s Offshore Oil And Gas Platforms Serve As Marine Protected Areas
ScienceDaily (July 14, 2003) — California’s offshore oil and gas platforms act as de facto marine protected areas for some overfished species and serve as a home to a variety of fish and invertebrate organisms, say scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Biologists Milton S. Love, Donna M. Schroeder and Mary M. Nishimoto have produced a report on a six-year study entitled, Platform Research Report, "The Ecological Role of Oil and Gas Production Platforms and Natural Outcrops on Fishes in Southern and Central California: A Synthesis of Information."
The researchers explain that the invertebrate organisms attach to the beams providing habitat for the fish. At the bottom of the platform is a "shell mound" of mussels and other invertebrates that are dislodged during cleaning or storms.
Off California there are 26 of these platforms, with 23 in federal waters and three in state waters.
Within a few years, some platforms, in Southern and Central California, will stop pumping. As they say in the report, "All oil and gas platforms have finite economic lives and by the beginning of the twenty-first century, seven platforms in Southern California had been decommissioned and a number of others appeared to be nearing the end of their economic lives."
So the question of what to do with the platforms becomes an issue. Should they be removed, have their tops taken off, toppled over, or remain as they are? The authors don’t take a stand, deferring the question to the various "stakeholders," including conservationists who want the platforms removed to those who fish the platforms who would like to see them stay. Chapter four covers the possibilities in great detail; it is called a "Guide to Ecological and Political Issues Surrounding Oil Platform Decommissioning in California."
In describing the research, Love explained that few of the many dozens of natural reefs that were studied harbored the large numbers of young rockfish that platforms do. He calls the platforms huge reefs and explained that they are better nurseries than nearby natural reefs. At least 18 species of rockfish use the platforms as a nursery and 35 species make these underwater towers their home.
Love said that there is increasing evidence that some platforms produce fish, while some fish, like kelp bass, tend to relocate there as adults.
He said that with this study, more is known about these platforms than any artificial reef system anywhere, including the Gulf of Mexico.
The study is available on line at id.ucsb.edu. Videotapes of the surveys are also available. The study was mainly funded by the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Department of Interior. Additional funding came from California Artificial Reef Enhancement Program, which is largely funded by the oil industry.
Adapted from materials provided by University Of California, Santa Barbara.
sciencedaily.com
O&G activity not bad for whales either:
Sperm Whales Drawn To Waters Off Mississippi River Delta
ScienceDaily (May 28, 2001) — COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- When people think of the Mississippi Delta, a few things are likely to come to mind -- jambalaya, New Orleans jazz, riverboats, cotton, swamps and sperm whales.
Sperm whales?
Researchers have found that endangered sperm whales frequent the deeper waters off the Mississippi Delta. Scientists estimate that at least 530 sperm whales can be found in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico.
In a Texas-Sea-Grant-funded project, Texas A&M University at Galveston marine biologists Randall Davis and Bernd Würsig will use satellite tracking, direct observation, genetic analyses and photographic identification to learn more about these large marine mammals that live so close to the coast.
Davis said coldwater eddies and the outflow of nutrients from the Mississippi River may enhance the production of food for these marine mammals and draw the animals nearer to coastal waters. The Mississippi Delta region of the Gulf also has water that's several thousand meters deep within 50 or 60 miles of the coast, he said, and sperm whales are typically found in these deeper waters along the continental shelf.
"The unique aspect of the Gulf is we have a continental shelf that is only about 25 miles wide off the Mississippi Delta, so we have this influx of freshwater nutrients into a deepwater environment very close to the coast," he said.
While this area of the Gulf of Mexico is popular with sperm whales, it is also home to a lot of oil and gas exploration. These activities, and the increasing boat traffic they bring, may be a cause for concern as far as their effects on the region's whales, he said.
"Basically, we probably have a breeding population of endangered sperm whales right in the middle of one of the hottest areas for offshore oil development in the continental U.S," Davis said.
As part of the study, researchers will tag whales with tracking devices that will follow the movements of the whales and record information on how often a whale dives -- which can be linked to feeding -- the duration of the dive and the depth of the dive. When the whale surfaces, the device relays the information back to researchers via satellite.
This information will help researchers learn more about the feeding behavior of sperm whales, Davis said. Currently, they can only get this information from observing sperm whales feeding and analyzing the stomach contents of a whale -- neither of which is easily done.
"Without being able to make direct observations on these deepwater whales, it's surprising how little we know about their natural history," he said.
The project is set up as a basic science study that looks at the natural history of sperm whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico. However, Davis said the study's findings would likely be of interest to the Marine Mammal Commission, National Marine Fisheries Service as well as the Minerals Management Service, which oversees development of offshore oil and gas deposits.
The Endangered Species Act requires officials to monitor not only oil pollution but also noise pollution, which comes from boat traffic and seismic activity that is used to search for oil.
Adapted from materials provided by National Sea Grant College Program.
sciencedaily.com
Photos of 3 offshore CA platforms:
acclaimimages.com
Offshore Nuances: Santa Barbara's Problematic Oil Seeps
By Bill Moore
Santa Barbara's offshore oil problem isn't man-made and therein lies a unique environmental and economic opportunity
PHOTO CAPTION: Offshore oil platforms like this one near Santa Barbara could help reduce the water and air pollution that occurs from natural petroleum seeps on the seafloor between Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties in California.
Open Access Article Originally Published: June 30, 2008
Wealthy, seriously-upscale Santa Barbara -- where homes average a million dollars -- sits at the epicenter of the second largest natural offshore oil seep on the planet. Only the Caspian Sea surpasses it.
In the national debate about opening up more of America's offshore regions to oil and gas drilling -- and setting aside the problem of carbon dioxide-induced climate change -- a sixty mile long stretch of coastline that reaches roughly from Ventura Country west north west to San Luis Obispo Country, well south of the Big Sur coast, has some 2,000 active sea floor oil seeps. According to former JPL physicist Bruce Allen, the tectonically active zone is estimated to have leaked some 800 million barrels of oil over the last 10,000 years.
Now a resident of Santa Barbara and a member of the air quality board, Allen -- who is writing a book on energy policy -- discovered during the course of his research that in the 38 years since the moratorium on oil drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel and off-shore California, an estimated 900 barrels of crude oil have leaked from the production platforms visible off the the coast. In contrast, he points out, the seeps have leaked an estimated two million barrels.
This not only represents an economic loss of some $280 million dollars at today's prices, but more importantly, it represents a serious environmental and public health problem.
Besides fouling Santa Barbara's beaches, Allen discovered a serious hydrocarbon air pollution problem. His wife works at the UC Santa Barbara campus, so he asked for air quality data for the campus and discovered that the level of airborne hydrocarbon contaminates can be as high as 10-times that of Los Angeles. He said that most Santa Barbara residents are surprised to learn that their oil problem -- and gasoline is now selling for more than $5 a gallon around town -- is a natural one, not man-made.
He also points out that when the seas in the channel are calm, it's possible to see a 50 square mile oil slick from the air as you fly into and out of the Santa Barbara airport; all of it the result of being located on an active major geological fault line that releases trapped petroleum, which has been estimated at 13 billion recoverable barrels for the Pacific Coast region back when oil was $55 a barrel.
Allen stresses that he views the crude oil fields off of Santa Barbara as a special case distinct from other fields off Florida and Alaska, and have unique issues compared to other offshore oil resources. As his book, which is currently in manuscript and nearing completion , will show, he believes that ultimately solar thermal electricity is the most promising clean, renewable energy source on the near horizon. He sees vast fields of solar collectors in the desert bringing down the cost of electric power generation to $2.50-2.75 a watt. Some of the excess solar-generated heat would be stored in molten salt that can then be used to create steam to generate electricity at night. Such plants located in the American desert southwest would then transmit their power through high voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines similar to the 800-mile long line that carries 6,500 megawatts -- equal to the output of six nuclear power plants -- from hydro dams deep in Brazil's interior to its major urban centers.
With up to an estimated $350 billion in oil royalties (at $138/barrel) at stake, Allen and his supporters are calling for an end to the California moratorium. Given the offshore oil industry's safety record over the last 38 years, his group believes the oil can be extracted safely, which will reduce in natural oil and gas seepage, resulting in environmental benefits. Gradually depleting the oil over 25 years will not only reduce the amount of seepage that is polluting the water and air off Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, but will provide the funds needed to develop the state's solar economy. Allen notes that the state is presently running a deficit and its much-touted million solar roofs and other renewable energy programs are underfunded . Potential royalties of up to 18% from the Santa Barbara fields could generate enough funds to allow the state to go largely solar electric by 2035, Allen estimates.
It is, clearly, a nuanced position for an avowed environmentalist to take at a time when the public has little patience for such subtle arguments, not when they're paying $4-5 a gallon for gasoline. Still, it certainly seems to make sense in a highly pragmatic way.
At least John McCain's staff was listening last week when they stopped in Santa Barbara for an Energy Roundtable. Whether they understood the import of this particular nuance remains to be seen.
Bruce Allen co-founded a non-profit, soscalifornia.org, along with Lad Handelman, the founder of Oceaneering International, to address the issue of oil seeps and offshore oil production in Santa Barbara County.
evworld.com
Donna- (1)As you know I serve as a Council Member of the Community Advisory Council(CAC) for the Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District, (2)Seepage oil is chemically the same as drilled oil with minor chemical species variations, (3)there are numerous published studies estimating SB oil seepage at between 40,000 and 90,000 barrels per year( see Quigley, D.C. 1997 for example)
Posted by: Bruce Allen:
Nation debates expanding offshore oil production
Published: Monday, July 14, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, July 14, 2008 at 3:51 p.m.
PORT FOURCHON – From his perch at the southern tip of Louisiana, Port Director Ted Falgout sees green: the color of money that comes from the nation’s busiest haven of offshore drilling.
USA Today
Port Fourchon has been home to offshore drilling since the 1970s. About 172 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico produce 79 percent of the oil and 72 percent of the natural gas that comes from U.S. coastlines.
“It’s OK to have an ugly spot in your backyard,” Falgout said, “if that spot has oil coming out of it.”
From her vantage point in Santa Barbara, Calif., a city known for beautiful beaches and wealthy residents, Mayor Marty Blum recalls black: the color of more than 3 million gallons of oil that flowed from a drilling rig blowout in 1969 and covered 35 miles of coastline with a thick layer of goo.
“The people of Santa Barbara don’t want any more oil drilling. That’s just pretty plain,” she said. “But everybody’s got a price, and at a certain price per gallon, we’re all going to want more drilling.”
Environmental hazard or energy bonanza: Oil-and-natural gas trapped beneath the ocean floor offshore, mean different things to different people. As gasoline soars beyond $4 a gallon, President Bush and his would-be Republican successor, John McCain, see a viable source of domestic production.
Democrat Barack Obama and the nation’s environmentalists see a threat to pristine waters and beaches and little help at the pump from offshore drilling.
It’s a debate with a rising decibel level, thanks to an energy crisis fueled by rising demand halfway around the world.
The U.S. consumes nearly one-fourth of the world’s oil but produces only about 10 percent. Its 1.76 billion-acre Outer Continental Shelf, which extends from about 3 to 200 miles offshore, is prime hunting ground.
In 2006, a consortium led by Chevron proved that oil could be produced from a geological area about 175 miles from Louisiana that’s estimated to hold 3 billion to 15 billion barrels of oil.
Since Congress imposed a moratorium on new drilling in 1981, most of the nation’s coastline has been off-limits – a type of ban that does not exist in countries such as Brazil and Norway, which have found large oil deposits offshore.
As prices rise, polls show two-thirds of Americans favor new drilling for oil and gas.
“The big discoveries are happening offshore,” said Robert Bryce, managing editor of Energy Tribune. “This is where the action is.”
By most estimates, at least 18 billion barrels of oil can be produced from areas that are off-limits, on top of 68 billion barrels in areas where drilling is allowed. The 18 billion barrels would be enough to fuel the country for 2 years.
Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, says the estimate is “extremely conservative, because it’s been 20 or 30 years since we’ve had the opportunity to look and see what’s there.”
A tale of two coasts
No two places illustrate the two sides of the debate better than Louisiana and California, where much oil has been produced but much more lies below:
• Louisiana has had offshore drilling since 1947. About 172 active rigs dot the Gulf of Mexico waters off the coast, producing about 79 percent of the oil and 72 percent of the natural gas that comes from drilling off the nation’s coastlines.
The state gets about $1.5 billion annually in oil-and-gas revenue, a figure that will grow when it starts receiving part of oil companies’ royalty payments in 2017 under federal law.
“It’s absolutely worth it,” said Garret Graves, head of the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities.
The biggest environmental impact has been the estimated 10,000 miles of canals dug by the oil-and-gas companies to transport oil and lay pipelines. The canals crisscross the coastal wetlands of Louisiana and have contributed to coastal erosion, said Mark Davis of Tulane University.
Environmentalists say the canals and lack of marshland removed an important natural buffer against storms and amplified Hurricane Katrina’s damage.
Offshore drilling also draws bustling ports, pipelines, petrochemical plants and other infrastructure that can disrupt natural coastal ecosystems.
• California was home to the first U.S. offshore oil production in 1896, from a wooden pier in Summerland. Today, it’s easy to spot oil rigs from coastal highways and the pricey seaside real estate that dots Santa Barbara County’s hillsides.
There are 26 oil-and-gas drilling platforms off the southern California coast and 1,500 active wells. Those in federal waters have produced more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 1.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas since the 1960s, said John Romero of the Minerals Management Service. Since the 1969 spill, he said, they’ve spilled only 852 barrels of oil, the result of better technology and regulatory vigilance.
Federal geologists, Romero said, estimate another 10 billion barrels of oil and 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are under the sea floor in areas where drilling is banned. But producers are mindful that, since 1969, public opinion has not been on their side.
‘Oil and water don’t mix’
Environmentalists see two basic problems from offshore drilling: pollution from everyday operations and oil spills from platforms, pipelines and tankers.
On both fronts, they acknowledge, the industry has improved through the years.
“Today’s technology is much better at routine drilling, at avoiding the kinds of seepages that were common a generation ago,” says Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen.
Even so, there are still risks.
When oil is brought up from beneath the ocean floor, other things are, too. Chemicals and toxic substances such as mercury and lead can be discharged back into the ocean.
The water pumped up along with the oil may contain benzene, arsenic and other pollutants. Even the exploration that precedes drilling, which depends on seismic air guns, can harm sea mammals.
“Basically, oil and water don’t mix,” said Melanie Duchin of the environmental group Greenpeace, who lives in Alaska and still sees pollution from the 11 million gallon Exxon Valdez tanker spill of 1989, which supplanted Santa Barbara as the nation’s worst. “Oil smothers wildlife.”
Government officials and industry specialists say improved technology and government oversight have made routine drilling safe.
State and federal laws regulate how much of each chemical can be discharged into the water; most are at insignificant levels, according to the Minerals Management Service.
The mercury that’s generated cannot be absorbed by fish tissue, officials say, avoiding the food chain.
Spills from platforms have become far less frequent over recent decades, federal data show.
During hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 115 oil platforms were toppled, but only insignificant amounts of oil spilled, says Roland Guidry, Louisiana’s oil-spill coordinator. There was significant pollution – 8 million to 10 million gallons of oil spilled, mostly from tanks and pipelines on land and from tankers striking submerged drilling platforms – but less than 10 percent of that came from federal offshore operations.
Today’s technology has greatly reduced the risk of oil spills.
“Offshore drilling is the safest way to go,” Guidry said. “Those guys don’t spill oil.”
Environmentalist Richard Charter of the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund said smaller spills are still too common. “This is a dirty, polluting industry,” Charter said. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes, stepped in it with my own feet.”
The biggest pollution risk involved in offshore drilling is in transporting the oil back to shore -by pipeline, barge or tanker.
The 2002 National Research Council report found that marine transportation was responsible for one-third of worldwide petroleum spillage, about eight times the amount caused by drilling platforms and pipelines.
Still, the Minerals Management Service predicts about one oil spill per year of at least 1,000 barrels in the Gulf of Mexico over the next 40 years.
Beyond the Gulf
About 70 percent of the oil found in the Gulf last year was in deep water, where it’s more expensive to drill.
The central and western Gulf “is an area that we’ve picked over a lot,” said Richard Ranger, senior policy adviser at the American Petroleum Institute.
While the nation’s coastal shelf runs from Maine to Texas and from California to Alaska, what most interests geologists are the untapped waters west of Florida and southern California. Since Canada has found oil off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, proponents of drilling also have hopes for the northern Atlantic.
Even the Department of Energy said oil from those areas won’t get here anytime soon. It projected last year that with the ban in place until 2012, new drilling would produce only 7 percent more oil in 2030, and the impact on oil prices would be “insignificant.”
Proponents counter that most testing for oil beneath the ocean floor was done a generation ago. “Until we can go out there and look,” said Paul Hillegeist of Quest Offshore Resources, a research and consulting firm, “no one knows what’s going on.”
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