Assessment of Opportunities for Alternative Uses of Hydrocarbon Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico

Summary

Branch: Executive

Category: Executive Agency Publications

SuDoc Class Number: I 72.

Government Author: Interior Department, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Personal Author: Kaiser MJ; Snyder B; Pulsipher AG

Series Title: BOEM Environmental Studies

Publication Title: Assessment of Opportunities for Alternative Uses of Hydrocarbon Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico

Date Issued: 2011

Subject: Socio-economic and Infrastructure
Employment & Income
Gulf of Mexico; Offshore Structures

Obligation Number: 1435-01-04-CA-32806-39324 (M05AC12278)

Geographic Scope: Gulf of Mexico

Report Number: 2011-028

CSE Reference: Kaiser MJ, Snyder B, Pulsipher AG (Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA). 2011. Assessment of opportunities for alternative uses of hydrocarbon infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans (LA): US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. 278 p. Obligation No.: 1435-01-04-CA-32806-39324 (M05AC12278). Report No.: OCS Study 2011-028. URL: https://espis.boem.gov/Final%20Reports/5153.pdf

Abstract: When an operator is granted a lease to develop oil and gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, they are required to remove structures within one year of the end of production on the lease. There are approximately 3,507 offshore oil and gas structures in the Gulf as of January 2011. Over the next decade, the number of structures is expected to decline by about 1,500, thus, there is a great deal of interest among both regulators and operators in finding new uses for these structures. Currently, most of the offshore structures that have been decommissioned are brought to shore and stored or used for scrap with a small number being reused in new developments. Artificial reef programs in Louisiana and Texas accept a modest number of platforms. The most likely alternative applications are as bases for mariculture or foundations for offshore wind farms. In this report we analyze the relative merits of each of these uses and potential uses based on their technological and economic feasibility. In short, platform based mariculture, while technically feasible, is plagued by economic issues that make it unlikely to be profitable in the near-term, while oil and gas infrastructure is generally not suited for the offshore wind industry due to scale economies and several other technical issues. It is possible that both mariculture and offshore wind could use oil and gas infrastructure in the future, and we discuss the circumstances under which this might occur. We find that only the use of platforms as artificial reefs is a realistic near term destination for existing infrastructure.