Access may be restricted by presidential withdrawals and congressional moratoria. Nevertheless, new ideas are being produced—along with oil and gas—on the US Outer Continental Shelf. What's more, this production isn't confined to the central and western Gulf of Mexico or limited to technology.
At the US Minerals Management Service OCS Policy Committee's latest meeting in Washington, DC, directors from the three active OCS regions delivered status reports. Each seemed to represent a distinct exploration and production phase.
John Gall, MMS's Alaska regional director, outlined an array of challenges facing the industry and governments contemplating the resources (an estimated 17-35 billion bbl of oil and 55-227 tcf of gas) off the 49th state.
They range from environmental and sociological impacts to shortages of seismic and drilling vessels and the state's distance from the Lower 48.
The challenges aren't stopping preparation for new development. At the Liberty project, said Gall, BP PLC is looking at operating more on a satellite than on a conventional basis.
"It also wants to do more assessment work with communities than usual before turning in its application," he said.
Production in the Gulf of Mexico continues to recover from Hurricane Ivan, noted Chris Oynes, director for that MMS region.
He reported that the storm did its worst damage to pipelines, although it did topple one platform and bury it in roughly 70 ft of mud. Restoring that production could take up to a year, he said.
Producers have responded favorably to royalty relief and other incentives to drill for gas on the deep shelf, which MMS thinks may contain 55 tcf, Oynes said. Oil discoveries continue to move into deeper water, with Unocal Corp.'s Tobago well currently holding the record at 9,627 ft.
"Many operators have been surprised by the strength of deepwater currents," said Oynes. Nevertheless, he continued, "ultradeep water is our next frontier that will start to take off."
Off the West Coast, "decommissioning platforms is our biggest challenge," said Peter L. Tweedt, MMS's Pacific regional director. While the biggest platform decommissioned so far was in 400 ft of water, he said that one unit in the Pacific Ocean is in 1,200 ft.
In a few cases, Tweedt said, platforms can be converted to other uses. Crystal Energy LLC, for example, has proposed turning ChevronTexaco Corp.'s Platform Grace 8 miles off southern California into an LNG terminal.
"We are doing studies so that we'll be ready before a company submits a platform decommissioning request," Tweedt said.
