Methodology for environmental impact assessment of underwater noise on marine mammals

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 467
Author(s):  
Dick Petersen ◽  
Antoine David ◽  
Darren Jurevicius
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Sound Propagation ◽  
Underwater Acoustics ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Marine Ecology ◽  
Underwater Sound ◽  
Underwater Noise ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Marine Fauna

The oil and gas industry uses some exploration and production technologies that produce high levels of underwater sound, such as seismic surveys, underwater blasting for demolition and construction, and offshore piling. These underwater noise sources have the potential to impact marine species, which are usually reliant on sound instead of light as their primary sense for communication and sensing their environment. Regulatory interest in minimising the impacts of underwater noise on marine fauna is increasing. This paper presents a methodology for assessing these environmental impacts, with particular focus on cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and pinnipeds (seals and sea lions), although it can easily be adapted to other marine mammal species and fishes. It requires input from a variety of fields, such as: underwater acoustics for sound propagation modelling and source noise characterisation; marine bio-acoustics for determining the effects of sound on marine species’ hearing and communication; and marine ecology for identifying the marine species that may be affected and assessing the biological importance of noise-affected marine areas. These inputs are used in a risk assessment to assess the likely impacts of underwater noise on marine species, which is a collaborative effort by specialists in the fields of underwater acoustics, marine bio-acoustics and marine ecology.

Cetaceans and the petroleum industry—coexistence or mutual exclusion?

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 685
Author(s):  
John Polglaze
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Mutual Exclusion ◽  
Petroleum Industry ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Seismic Survey ◽  
Underwater Noise ◽  
Marine Fauna

Legends, myths and plain old misinformation abound of whale migrations interrupted by international shipping, dolphin populations displaced by dredging activities, and of seismic survey campaigns resulting in disoriented, beached whales. While risks exist, in truth the Australian petroleum industry continues to demonstrate that it can successfully coexist productively alongside populations of cetacean. These whales and dolphins are seemingly able to at least tolerate, if not actually be undisturbed by, underwater noise. Other risks to cetaceans from oil and gas activities, whether actual or perceived, encompass vessel strike, turbidity plumes from dredging, port developments, underwater blasting, spills, the laying and operation of pipelines, and similar. URS Australia’s John Polglaze is a specialist in the environmental impact evaluation of underwater noise, and has over 15 years experience in marine environmental management and impact assessment following nearly 20 years service in the Royal Australian Navy. John presents on the range of environmental impact assessment challenges for the oil and gas industry in Australian coastal and offshore regions, and effective, pragmatic solutions for demonstrating low risks to cetaceans and other sensitive marine fauna. These include the application and limitations of computer-based models to predict underwater noise and blast propagation, the development of a risk assessment framework that has proven effective with state and Commonwealth regulators, and case studies of real-life interactions between the petroleum industry and cetacean populations. In particular, he will discuss how misunderstanding and misapprehension of these complex issues unnecessarily complicates the challenges of environmental compliance. This topic is timely, given that Australia’s rapidly increasing whale populations, coupled with the continued expansion of offshore petroleum activities, will lead to more frequent interaction between and overlap of cetaceans and oil and gas activities.

scholarly journals The Memories of Our Future: The Memories of Maūi

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shannon Lenihan
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Marine Ecology ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Cetacean Species ◽  
Narrative Design ◽  
Oil Platforms ◽  
Offshore Oil And Gas ◽  
Offshore Oil

<p>This thesis proposes a way to re-inhabit and transform the adverse identity of an old offshore oil and gas platform. Located 35 kilometers off the West Coast of Taranaki, New Zealand, the Māui A Platform (also known as MPA) is transformed in this thesis design investigation into an Environmental Centre, a living retreat for ‘children’ (in fact, for adults who will be encouraged in the design to see life through the eyes of children). The intention is to generate knowledge and awareness about the environment.  The Māui A and Māui B offshore oil and gas platforms are nearing the end of their economic lifespan. Globally, the current most common decommissioning method of oil platforms involves the use of explosives at the base of the jacket. The structure is then towed to shore and dismantled. The explosives leave scars not only on the landscape the platforms once inhabited; they critically damage the surrounding marine ecology, vast numbers of marine species. This is of severe concern for the marine life and ecosystems surrounding the Māui A & Māui B Platforms as they are located in an extremely sensitive marine area where over 30 percent of the world’s cetacean species inhabit or through which they frequently migrate. Only two of these marine mammal species are not listed as ‘species of concern’ in the New Zealand Threat Classification list.  The future of these platforms does not need to cause more adversity to the environment, but rather can regenerate it. By re-purposing rather than exploding and dismantling these structures, this thesis aims to propose a way to re-inhabit the Māui A Platform and transform it into an educational retreat that enables further awareness, reconciliation, restoration, and protection of marine systems, environment, and threatened marine species. This thesis explores opportunities to create a closed circuit system as a means of providing food, fresh water, water treatment and energy for the platform.  To achieve this regenerative solution in ways that will resonate with those who visit the Māui A Platform, this project enters the realm of the imagination. The imagination is fundamental to learning - hence the proposition that this design be framed as both mythological and experiential. Narrative design – story telling – is explored as a tool to connect sustainable awareness and consciousness as a means to help educate the beneficiaries of this world – our ‘children’. To encourage the adult visitors to fully recognise that the beneficiaries are indeed our children, the thesis investigation will design the new Environmental Centre through the eyes of the child. As a tool to enhance the historic narrative of the site and context, the design strategically frames traces of important or unnoticed elements or equipment of the Māui A Platform.  In order to be understood and engaged with by ‘children’, this project enters the realm of the imagination enabling the design to be both mythological and experiential.</p>

scholarly journals The Memories of Our Future: The Memories of Maūi

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shannon Lenihan
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Marine Ecology ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Cetacean Species ◽  
Narrative Design ◽  
Oil Platforms ◽  
Offshore Oil And Gas ◽  
Offshore Oil

<p>This thesis proposes a way to re-inhabit and transform the adverse identity of an old offshore oil and gas platform. Located 35 kilometers off the West Coast of Taranaki, New Zealand, the Māui A Platform (also known as MPA) is transformed in this thesis design investigation into an Environmental Centre, a living retreat for ‘children’ (in fact, for adults who will be encouraged in the design to see life through the eyes of children). The intention is to generate knowledge and awareness about the environment.  The Māui A and Māui B offshore oil and gas platforms are nearing the end of their economic lifespan. Globally, the current most common decommissioning method of oil platforms involves the use of explosives at the base of the jacket. The structure is then towed to shore and dismantled. The explosives leave scars not only on the landscape the platforms once inhabited; they critically damage the surrounding marine ecology, vast numbers of marine species. This is of severe concern for the marine life and ecosystems surrounding the Māui A & Māui B Platforms as they are located in an extremely sensitive marine area where over 30 percent of the world’s cetacean species inhabit or through which they frequently migrate. Only two of these marine mammal species are not listed as ‘species of concern’ in the New Zealand Threat Classification list.  The future of these platforms does not need to cause more adversity to the environment, but rather can regenerate it. By re-purposing rather than exploding and dismantling these structures, this thesis aims to propose a way to re-inhabit the Māui A Platform and transform it into an educational retreat that enables further awareness, reconciliation, restoration, and protection of marine systems, environment, and threatened marine species. This thesis explores opportunities to create a closed circuit system as a means of providing food, fresh water, water treatment and energy for the platform.  To achieve this regenerative solution in ways that will resonate with those who visit the Māui A Platform, this project enters the realm of the imagination. The imagination is fundamental to learning - hence the proposition that this design be framed as both mythological and experiential. Narrative design – story telling – is explored as a tool to connect sustainable awareness and consciousness as a means to help educate the beneficiaries of this world – our ‘children’. To encourage the adult visitors to fully recognise that the beneficiaries are indeed our children, the thesis investigation will design the new Environmental Centre through the eyes of the child. As a tool to enhance the historic narrative of the site and context, the design strategically frames traces of important or unnoticed elements or equipment of the Māui A Platform.  In order to be understood and engaged with by ‘children’, this project enters the realm of the imagination enabling the design to be both mythological and experiential.</p>

scholarly journals Towards Quieter Seas

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (06) ◽  
pp. 32-35
Author(s):  
Michael Bahtiarian
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Underwater Sound ◽  
Underwater Noise ◽  
Shipbuilding Industry ◽  
Oil And Gas Exploration ◽  
The Us ◽  
Ship Classification ◽  
Near Future

This article focuses on various research efforts that are being undertaken to address underwater noise. One of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s findings is that underwater sound has been doubling every 10 years. Most of this sound is man-made, from the ever expanding fleet of ships that ride our oceans. Researchers believe that intrusive sound is harming sea life. Many organizations around the US shipbuilding industry have seen the need to address underwater noise. Standards organizations such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the Acoustical Society of America have been working overtime to develop standards for the measurement of underwater noise from ships, oil and gas exploration, pile driving, and other sources. The ship classification societies are adding underwater noise to their library of regulations. In the United States, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers are planning to add their own regulations or guidelines in the near future.

scholarly journals Explosives Use In Decommissioning – Guide for Assessment of Risk (Edgar): I Determination of Sound Pressure Levels for Open Water Blasts and Severance of Conductors and Piles from below the Seabed

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison M. Brand
Keyword(s):  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Total Error ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Noise Model ◽  
Underwater Sound ◽  
Underwater Noise ◽  
The Us ◽  
Sound Pressure Levels

A simple underwater noise model suitable for use with explosives in the decommissioning of oil and gas subsea structures is introduced and evaluated against data from five projects in the US. The performance of the model is compared to four existing models for open water blasts, and for the severance of well conductors and piles. Simulated received underwater sound pressure levels were significantly correlated with measurements for all scenarios. The maximum total error achieved between simulations and measurements was 3.5%, suggesting that predictions are accurate to within 4% of the average measurement. A low relative bias was observed in the simulations when compared to measured values, suggesting only a small systematic underestimate (&le; 1% of average measurement) for most severance operations and a small overestimate (1.34%) for open water blasts.

scholarly journals Explosives Use in Decommissioning—Guide for Assessment of Risk (EDGAR): I Determination of Sound Pressure Levels for Open Water Blasts and Severance of Conductors and Piles from Below the Seabed

Modelling ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison M. Brand
Keyword(s):  
Sound Pressure ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Total Error ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Noise Model ◽  
Underwater Sound ◽  
Underwater Noise ◽  
The Us ◽  
Sound Pressure Levels

A simple underwater noise model suitable for use with explosives in the decommissioning of oil and gas subsea structures is introduced and evaluated against data from five projects in the US. The performance of the model is compared to four existing models for open water blasts, and for the severance of well conductors and piles. Simulated received underwater sound pressure levels were significantly correlated with measurements for all scenarios. The maximum total error achieved between simulations and measurements was 3.5%, suggesting that predictions are accurate to within 4% of the average measurement. A low relative bias was observed in the simulations when compared to measured values, suggesting only a small systematic underestimate (≤1% of average measurement) for most severance operations and a small overestimate (1.34%) for open water blasts.

Deployment of Digital NDT Solutions in the Oil and Gas Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (7) ◽  
pp. 861-868
Author(s):  
Casper Wassink ◽  
Marc Grenier ◽  
Oliver Roy ◽  
Neil Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Gas Industry

What Does Rent Give to Federal Budget (on the Russia's Budget Dependence upon "Oil Dollars")

2004 ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Sharipova ◽  
I. Tcherkashin
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Oil Prices ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Resource Rent ◽  
Tax Legislation ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
The Government

Federal tax revenues from the main sectors of the Russian economy after the 1998 crisis are examined in the article. Authors present the structure of revenues from these sectors by main taxes for 1999-2003 and prospects for 2004. Emphasis is given to an increasing dependence of budget on revenues from oil and gas industries. The share of proceeds from these sectors has reached 1/3 of total federal revenues. To explain this fact world oil prices dynamics and changes in tax legislation in Russia are considered. Empirical results show strong dependence of budget revenues on oil prices. The analysis of changes in tax legislation in oil and gas industry shows that the government has managed to redistribute resource rent in favor of the state.

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