Watching Government: Virginia's offshore potential

Sept. 9, 2013
The 2013 Democratic and Republican gubernatorial nominees headlined the Consumer Energy Alliance's Virginia Energy and Opportunity Forum Aug. 29 in Arlington. But a group of offshore energy experts nearly stole the show.

The 2013 Democratic and Republican gubernatorial nominees headlined the Consumer Energy Alliance's Virginia Energy and Opportunity Forum Aug. 29 in Arlington. But a group of offshore energy experts nearly stole the show.

Two panelists in particular—Eddie Pharr, vice-president of business development at Spectrum Geo Inc., and Erik Milito, the American Petroleum Institute's upstream and industry operations director—strongly urged the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to evaluate Virginia's potential offshore oil and gas resources sooner instead of later.

A federal lease sale there was part of a proposed 5-year US Outer Continental Shelf program which then-US Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar recalled for reexamination in 2008.

When the reworked 2012-17 OCS program became final, Lease Sale 220 was gone, ostensibly because the 2010 Macondo deepwater well incident and spill raised major safety and environmental questions that needed to be answered first.

Salazar also pressed for more detailed environmental examinations before any new federal oil and gas leasing was scheduled. Mid-Atlantic OCS resource estimates also relied on decades-old data that badly needed updating. The newly formed BOEM took on that task.

It started developing a programmatic environmental impact statement. BOEM received comments warning that running 3D seismic off Atlantic states could hurt fish and other marine life. Such concerns don't recognize tremendous offshore geophysical advances in the last 20 years, Pharr said on Aug. 29.

"Our equipment has passive acoustic monitoring devices," Pharr said, adding, "We have marine mammal observers on each boat now. We ramp up power gradually, and if one of those observers sees marine mammals in the area, operations shut down until they leave."

No known fatalities

Pharr said he knew of no marine mammal or fish fatalities resulting in from offshore seismic surveys. "The need for modern seismic data off the Atlantic coast is imperative," he added.

Milito said moving ahead there is important since Salazar effectively closed off 85% of the US OCS in the reworked 5-year program. Federal agencies have successfully coordinated operations in the Gulf of Mexico for decades so oil and gas activity does not interfere with military needs, he noted. That record of success could help achieve similar solutions off Virginia's coast, Milito said.

BOEM needs to move faster, Milito maintained, adding, "If it doesn't, these delays could keep Virginia's offshore from being in the next 5-year OCS program. If that happens, Congress would have to intervene and order a sale."

A BOEM spokeswoman told OGJ the same day: "Our goal is to get the EIS completed by the end of this year so that potentially surveys could take place next year."