The Memories of Our Future: The Memories of Maūi

10.26686/wgtn.17020091 ◽

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

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.

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Methodology for environmental impact assessment of underwater noise on marine mammals

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj10030 ◽

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.

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Oceanographic gradients and patterns in invertebrate assemblages on offshore oil platforms

ICES Journal of Marine Science ◽

10.1093/icesjms/fsn060 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 65 (6) ◽

pp. 851-861 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Henry M. Page ◽

Carolynn S. Culver ◽

Jenifer E. Dugan ◽

Brent Mardian

Keyword(s):

Exotic Species ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Function Analysis ◽

Sea Anemones ◽

Oil Platforms ◽

Offshore Oil Platforms ◽

Invertebrate Assemblages ◽

Offshore Oil And Gas ◽

Channel Patterns ◽

Offshore Oil

Abstract Page, H. M., Culver, C. S., Dugan, J. E., and Mardian, B. 2008. Oceanographic gradients and patterns in invertebrate assemblages on offshore oil platforms. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 851–861. We explored variability in the composition and cover of subtidal macroinvertebrate assemblages, and the recruitment and growth rates of selected invertebrate species, on seven offshore oil and gas platforms arrayed across a gradient in oceanographic conditions in the Santa Barbara Channel, CA, USA. The major macroinvertebrate taxa (sea anemones, mussels, barnacles, tubiculous amphipods, hydroids, and sponges) were common to all platforms. However, discriminant function analysis (DFA) revealed that the assemblages of two platforms (Gilda and Gail) clearly differed from the other platforms, a pattern attributable, in part, to the presence of conspicuous exotic species (the anemone, Diadumene sp., and encrusting bryozoan, Watersipora subtorquata) on these platforms. If these exotic species were excluded from the analysis, platforms in proximity to each other generally tended to have invertebrate assemblages more similar to each other than to platforms located farther away. Spatial variation in barnacle recruitment onto ceramic plates and mussel growth rate reflected prevailing oceanographic gradients. The existence of along-channel patterns in the composition of platform invertebrate assemblages, and in invertebrate recruitment and growth associated with oceanographic gradients, suggests that assemblages attached to platforms or other artificial structures may be useful barometers of short and perhaps longer term change in ocean climate.

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Exploring Understandings of Different Decommissioning Options for Offshore Oil and Gas Structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand

10.26686/wgtn.17134052 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Carmen Lau

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Complete Removal ◽

Offshore Structures ◽

Postal Survey ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

The South ◽

Planning Stage ◽

Offshore Oil And Gas ◽

Offshore Oil

The majority of the world’s offshore oil and gas structures will need to be decommissioned in upcoming decades as they near the end of their production phase. Once decommissioned, there are three main options available for the now-obsolete structures: complete removal, partial removal, and re-use. Since New Zealand has yet to decommission any offshore structures, there are no past examples or legislative precedent to guide the process. International case studies indicate that social acceptance is crucial to the successful implementation of these projects, so the aim of this thesis was to examine perceptions of different decommissioning options for offshore oil and gas structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand. Grounded in agenda-setting theory, Study 1 examined the prominence and portrayal of offshore decommissioning in the media. We found an exceedingly low coverage (N = 13) which indicates that the public are likely unaware of the issue. Within the limited sample, the themes 'disregarding decommissioning' and 'addressing decommissioning' were identified which, when combined, suggest that New Zealand is in the pre-planning stage of decommissioning and has yet to explore the options available. Using a postal survey (N = 154), Study 2 measured how the Taranaki community currently understood different decommissioning options, and explored whether and which familiarity variables, psychological constructs, and demographic variables could predict support for different options. The results confirmed a lack of knowledge and awareness (but high levels of interest) among the sample and revealed heterogeneity in which option was supported. Moreover, path analyses showed that awareness, knowledge, age, individualist worldviews, and egalitarian worldviews were significantly associated with support for different options. As will be discussed, these findings have significant implications for communication, engagement, and policy-making in both New Zealand and the international context.

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New Zealand government may achieve transformation

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db233435 ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

New Zealand ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Exploration And Exploitation ◽

Content Type ◽

Oil And Gas Exploration ◽

Economic Shock ◽

The Government ◽

Offshore Oil And Gas ◽

Offshore Oil

Significance Fourteen days beforehand, Ardern said no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits would be awarded -- evidence she said of the “government of transformation” she promises. The offshore ban does not affect the wide areas already open for exploration and exploitation over the next three decades, but it reinforces the government’s intention to be more active on climate change and environmental protection. Like the government's “wellbeing economics”, this might prove transformative if Ardern can retain office through to at least the next election in 2020. Impacts The offshore oil and gas exploration ban could see earlier withdrawal by major oil producers. Onshore permits for oil and gas exploration and coal mining will continue. Any major political or economic shock will affect “transformation”, as Robertson warns.

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A CFD Analysis of Decommissioned Oil Platforms Jackets on the Brazilian Coast

CFD Letters ◽

10.37934/cfdl.13.12.6380 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 63-80

Author(s):

Fernando Rodrigues Gonzalez ◽

Roger Matsumoto Moreira

Keyword(s):

Oil And Gas ◽

Artificial Reef ◽

Free Water ◽

Point Of View ◽

Brazilian Coast ◽

Ansys Fluent ◽

Oil Platforms ◽

Offshore Oil And Gas ◽

Volume Method ◽

Offshore Oil

Every facility reaches the last phase in its life cycle, which is decommissioning. Since the last decade, this subject has been gaining importance in Brazil’s offshore oil and gas companies. For jacket type rigs, one of the methods widely applied after idling the production is the conversion of these structures into artificial reefs (ARs). There are several critical aspects for choosing the best strategy for cutting and sinking a platform jacket, ensuring the success of an AR from a biological point of view. One of them is the influence of marine currents and their fluid-structure interaction which, by maximizing local upwelling and back vortex effects, favours the growth of aggregated flora and fauna. This study consists in the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques for studying the marine flow around a disassembled and sunk jacket in the seabed for the purpose of converting it into an artificial reef. An FVM (Finite Volume Method) from a commercial software (most recent version of ANSYS FLUENT®) is applied with the upwind scheme. A k-ε turbulence model on steady state is chosen. Field data about Brazilian coastal currents are collected and analysed from the amount of information available on a Brazilian Navy's meteoceanographic program. Next, different combinations of cutting and sinking a jacket are studied, always keeping a minimum 55m free water column. The objective is to verify where the formation of local upwelling regions - that is, where the vertical velocity component reaches values equal or greater than 10% of the magnitude of the free flow velocity - is more significant, without decreasing back eddy formation. It is observed that the dismemberment of the jacket with the positioning of its parts in an increasing height sequence in the direction of the prevailing current is favourable to generate local upwelling while tipping the structure at 90° to the prevailing current results in the most voluminous back eddy region.

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Exploring Understandings of Different Decommissioning Options for Offshore Oil and Gas Structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand

10.26686/wgtn.17134052.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Carmen Lau

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Complete Removal ◽

Offshore Structures ◽

Postal Survey ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

The South ◽

Planning Stage ◽

Offshore Oil And Gas ◽

Offshore Oil

The majority of the world’s offshore oil and gas structures will need to be decommissioned in upcoming decades as they near the end of their production phase. Once decommissioned, there are three main options available for the now-obsolete structures: complete removal, partial removal, and re-use. Since New Zealand has yet to decommission any offshore structures, there are no past examples or legislative precedent to guide the process. International case studies indicate that social acceptance is crucial to the successful implementation of these projects, so the aim of this thesis was to examine perceptions of different decommissioning options for offshore oil and gas structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand. Grounded in agenda-setting theory, Study 1 examined the prominence and portrayal of offshore decommissioning in the media. We found an exceedingly low coverage (N = 13) which indicates that the public are likely unaware of the issue. Within the limited sample, the themes 'disregarding decommissioning' and 'addressing decommissioning' were identified which, when combined, suggest that New Zealand is in the pre-planning stage of decommissioning and has yet to explore the options available. Using a postal survey (N = 154), Study 2 measured how the Taranaki community currently understood different decommissioning options, and explored whether and which familiarity variables, psychological constructs, and demographic variables could predict support for different options. The results confirmed a lack of knowledge and awareness (but high levels of interest) among the sample and revealed heterogeneity in which option was supported. Moreover, path analyses showed that awareness, knowledge, age, individualist worldviews, and egalitarian worldviews were significantly associated with support for different options. As will be discussed, these findings have significant implications for communication, engagement, and policy-making in both New Zealand and the international context.

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