IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/marpol/v51y2015icp512-526.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hurricane clean-up activity in the Gulf of Mexico, 2004–2013

Author

Listed:
  • Kaiser, Mark J.

Abstract

The offshore oil and gas industry is susceptible to natural and man-made disasters. From 2004 to 2008, five major hurricanes-destroyed 181 structures and 1673 wells in the Gulf of Mexico. State and federal regulatory agencies were forced to deal with an unprecedented number of applications to Rigs-to-Reef Programs because operators wanted to permit their toppled structures as reefs. In 2009, the Minerals Management Service issued a moratorium on reef proposals outside of established planning areas in response to public criticism and NGO assertions that Rigs-to-Reef was becoming a de facto “Ocean Dumping Program”. In 2013, the moratorium was lifted, and in a recently released Rigs-to-Reef Interim Policy Document 2013-07, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement specified that no departures from regulatory requirements will be granted for toppled structures. The purpose of this article is to describe the status of hurricane clean-up activity in the Gulf of Mexico, and to identify the challenges associated with unconventional decommissioning operations. Through 2013, 141 hurricane-destroyed structures and 1537 wells have been decommissioned. Remaining structures that await regulatory approval are likely to be more expensive and difficult to decommission relative to previous activity. Federal regulatory responses in the aftermath of the hurricane destruction are described.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaiser, Mark J., 2015. "Hurricane clean-up activity in the Gulf of Mexico, 2004–2013," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 512-526.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:51:y:2015:i:c:p:512-526
    DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2014.09.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X14002346
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.marpol.2014.09.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaiser, Mark J. & Kasprzak, Richard A., 2008. "The impact of the 2005 hurricane season on the Louisiana Artificial Reef Program," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 956-967, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaiser, Mark J. & Yu, Yunke, 2010. "The impact of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike on offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 284-297, January.
    2. Ramos, Jorge, 2021. "Online Perception Of Artificial Reef Risk And Safety By Stakeholders (Including Residents And Tourists) Via The Analytic Hierarchy Process," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 9(3), pages 189-204.
    3. Kaiser, Mark J. & Yu, Yunke & Jablonowski, Christopher J., 2009. "Modeling lost production from destroyed platforms in the 2004–2005 Gulf of Mexico hurricane seasons," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1156-1171.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:51:y:2015:i:c:p:512-526. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.