Oil & Gas Industry Doing its Part to Presever Marine Life
The
scene is like one viewed in a Jacques Cousteau film - Thriving sea life,
thousands of fish swimming in and out of a reef, declared as their own. The environment is
booming with life. Some oceanographers would give anything to study it,
photographers would kill to shoot it and environmentalists would say it’s a
haven which needs to be preserved. This reef is… an oil rig? That’s right! An
oil rig, the main tool of the evil oil industry, is a home to thriving sea
life.
Many
people assume that the impact of offshore oil rigs on marine life is devastating
but, in fact, it is quite the contrary.
These active and decommissioned rigs provide a safe haven and plentiful
habitat that would otherwise be nonexistent from the Gulf’s ecosystem.
Thanks
to the "Rigs to Reef Program", which is
implemented in all five states surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, these
eco-friendly rigs have become a permanent fixture to help sustain and strengthen
marine life, in turn, saving the industry millions of dollars a year. Before the program started, in compliance
with federal policies & procedures, countless oil rigs had to be
disassembled and towed to shore within five years of the decommission process. This destruction caused a devastating impact
on the marine life. Some of these rigs
would be up for years then immediately torn down wiping out an entire habitat
of marine life, which was more damaging than a year’s worth of commercial
fishing.
The owner of each decommissioned rig that
participates in the "Rigs to Reef Program" donates
50% of the money that was saved to that state’s artificial reef program and
even after this hefty donation they still make a better profit than if they
were to destroy the rig itself. All in
all, this program is beneficial to both, the oil industry and the marine life.
Click
here
to see a recent decommissioning of a Chevron rig for the Rigs to Reef Program.
American Petroleum Institute. (2011). Rigs &
Reefs. Retrieved June 20, 2012, from API: American Petroleum Institute:
http://www.api.org/environment-health-and-safety/clean-water/oil-spill-prevention-and-response/rigs-reefs.aspx
Kolian, S., & Sammarco, P. (2008, December). ecorigs.org.
Retrieved June 20, 2012, from Removal of Offshore Oil & Gas Platforms:
http://www.ecorigs.org/Platform%20Removal%20Brief.pdf
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