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Mineral Resources Management Division - Rigs to Reefs Workshop
Marina Voskanian |
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Mrs. Voskanian is the Chief of the Planning & Development section of the Mineral Resources Management Division, California State Lands Commission. |
| ~ Based on Transcript ~ |
Good morning Commissioners, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to welcome all of you to this morning's California State Lands Commission rigs to reefs workshop.
I serve as the Chief of Planning and Development for the Mineral Resources Management Division, and I will be your moderator for today's workshop.
The entire workshop will be recorded, and, as Mr. Paul Thayer stated, we are holding the workshop at the request of the State Lands Commission.
The State Lands Commission believes the issues relating to the rigs to reefs concept are extremely important and need to be discussed.
This slide shows our agenda for today which we hope will result in achieving our Commission's objectives. The Commission has coordinated this workshop, and we have invited experts from the scientific community, key representatives from appropriate public agencies, the oil and gas industry, ocean users and members from the environmental community to share with us their respective facts and points of views on rigs to reefs.
As you can see from the agenda, today's workshop is scheduled to conclude at noon. We have many speakers participating. Therefore, I encourage all of the speakers to keep their presentation within the allotted time frame.
We also have scheduled 45 minutes for public testimony and questions and answers at the end of the program. If you would like to speak, please fill out the questionnaires which are available at the registration desk outside the auditorium, and we will be able to address those at the end of the formal presentations.
The speakers will be available to address those questions at the end of the session. Unfortunately, we were unable to include all the experts on this topic, and I know there are some present today which weren't included in the agenda. But if time allows during public testimony period, we will be happy to hear from them.
I'm sure we are all looking forward to a very informative workshop today.
Fundamental to a rigs to reefs program is an offshore platform or facility which has reached to the end of its useful life and is scheduled for decommissioning.
The decommissioning options that pertain to rigs to reefs are shown in these slides. All, or a portion of, the offshore oil and gas facility remains on-site, or is moved to another offshore location, to provide marine habitat. That is the basic definition of rigs to reefs.
Here are some slides of a recent platform decommissioning project showing some of the dismantling activity and marine growth found on the platform structure. This was not a rigs to reefs project, however.
Currently offshore California there are 33 oil facilities, 10 in state waters. Six of the state water facilities are islands. Under terms of the current state and federal leases, it' is anticipated that the platforms will be completely removed. However, it has been suggested that using the structures for artificial reefs may provide significant benefits and should be considered as a viable alternative removal strategy.
Given the interest in finding beneficial uses for the oil structures, there are ongoing efforts to investigate and resolve the issues. Federal, State, and local agencies have formed the Interagency Decommissioning Working Group, or IDWG.
This group was formed to collect, synthesize and disseminate information and to facilitate discussion on facility decommissioning issues. The agencies involved in this group are shown in this slide, and many are here today participating and speaking on rigs to reefs issues.
The IDWG continues to meet on a regular basis and will be involved in technical aspects of decommissioning activities.
The first segment of our program is entitled "Facility Decommissioning Past, Present and Future," which will be discussed by the speakers shown in this slide.
The speakers will relate their agency's, or company's, experience in decommissioning offshore facilities. Included will be presentations on artificial reefs in California, as well as rigs to reefs programs in the Gulf of Mexico.