TPT September 2012

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Global Marketplace
September 2012 99
So the friends of the platform have some breathing room. But
the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement reports that 265 platforms were removed in
2011; and industry sources say that 150 or more of the 650
on the bureau’s list are scheduled for removal in 2012.
›More broadly inclusive campaigns to save the new
endangered species are under way. The Gulf of Mexico
Fishery Management Council – which exercises federal
control over fishery resources in a zone 9 to 200 miles off the
Texas coast – is seeking recognition of offshore platforms as
essential fish habitat. That designation could bring into play
the Sustainable Fisheries Act, which prohibits removal of
protected corals from federal waters.
The governor of Texas and a state congressman have asked
the Interior Department to reevaluate the removal rules, as
has a coalition of seven recreational angling organisations,
including the Coastal Conservation Association. The coalition
is supporting legislation to require more thorough review of
platform removal.
› Ms Gaskill noted that Interior has legitimate concerns
about the risk and expense of removing structures
damaged or toppled by storms, as well as the potential for
spills from old wells. Looking to the future, John Hoffman, the
CEO of Black Elk Energy, an oil and gas company based in
Houston, has founded a non-profit organisation, Save the
Blue, to help insure and maintain platforms that are spared
removal.
Meanwhile, one platform’s reprieve is gratifying to scuba
divers as well as environmentalists.
“Some people say High Island is their favourite dive in the
sanctuary, and it is an exhilarating experience,” said Mr
Schmahl, of Flower Garden Banks. “The number of fish can
be overwhelming. It’s like no other kind of diving.”
Elsewhere in oil and gas . . .
› New facilities at the huge Halfaya oil field in Iraq have
started production in a development phase that will take
output to 70,000 barrels per day (bpd). Subsequent phases
are intended to raise production to a plateau rate of 535,000
bpd. As reported in Oil & Gas Journal (27 June), a group led
by PetroChina has a 20-year service contract to develop the
field, which was producing 3,100 bpd from four wells when the
contract was signed in late 2009. The contract provides for
cost recovery and remuneration of $1.40 per barrel (bbl) when
production exceeds the initial 70,000 bpd.
Former Iraqi Oil Minister Issam Al-Chalabi has estimated
Halfaya reserves at 4.6 billion bbl; original oil in place, at 16
billion bbl. Paris-based Total E&P holds an 18.75 per cent
interest in the consortium, in partnership with the national oil
company of Malaysia, Petronas Carigali (also 18.75 per cent);
the Iraqi national South Oil Co (25 per cent); and operator
PetroChina (37.5 per cent).
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