Record-high dry natural gas production in November , low demand because of warm weather , and relatively small withdrawals from storage during the winter heating season November 1—March 31 have led to a sustained decrease in the natural gas price.
Add us to your site. Today in Energy. May 20, The number of active U. Source: U. Energy Information Administration , based on data from Refinitiv. With curbing climate change rising up the international agenda , and with some questioning whether we have already passed peak oil, hastened by the coronavirus pandemic , the number of defunct rigs in the ocean is set to get bigger.
Removing them from the water is incredibly expensive and labour-intensive. Allowing them to rust and fall into disrepair is an environmental risk that could seriously damage marine ecosystems. But there is one way in which these old rigs can be remarkably useful: the subsurface rig provides the ideal skeleton for coral reefs. Teeming with fish and other wildlife, offshore rigs like Platform Holly are in fact the most bountiful human-made marine habitats in the world.
The subsea structures are a vertical spine that gradually turn into reefs over time Credit: Alamy. The practice of transforming rigs into reefs in the United States dates back almost 40 years. In , the US Congress signed the National Fishing Enhancement Act which recognised the benefits artificial reefs provided and encouraged states to draw up plans to turn defunct rigs into reefs.
The five coastal states on the Gulf of Mexico — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — all have rigs-to-reefs programmes and have converted more than oil and gas platforms into artificial reefs. When oil companies cease drilling in these states, they decommission their platform by sealing the oil well. Then they can either choose to remove the entire platform or convert it into a reef by removing just the upper section of the structure.
Reefing a platform is an attractive proposition for oil and gas companies as it is significantly less expensive than total removal and is estimated to save the industry millions of dollars each year. Campaigners say it is a win-win situation as companies spend half of their decommissioning savings on the state's artificial reef programme. This money goes towards maintaining the platforms, marine conservation and education. Due to the abundant marine species living there, the platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have become hotspots for diving, snorkelling and recreational fishing.
Marine scientists Emily Hazelwood and Amber Sparks are on a mission to replicate this conservation success in other parts of the world. They founded the California-based organisation Blue Latitudes in to raise awareness about the benefits of rigs and persuade oil companies and governments to designate them as permanent reefs.
Hazelwood and Sparks have reefed rigs from Thailand to West Africa, preventing more than a dozen large marine ecosystems from being wiped out. When offshore rigs become defunct, they can either be left in place and maintained for wildlife, or dismantled Credit: Alamy.
Offshore rigs are among the most productive fish habitats in the world , according to marine biologist Milton Love who has spent 20 years studying fish populations around oil and gas platforms in California. They provide marine wildlife with food, shelter from predators and a safe breeding ground. For some species, the rigs are even better nurseries than natural reefs, says Love.
The towering pylons are the perfect spawning grounds for tiny fish larvae. One of the big beneficiaries is rockfish, stocks of which have been heavily depleted due to overfishing along the US West Coast.
But wildlife is also at risk from these farms - so, what can be done? If we are to solve the great issues of our time, design fiction and futures-thinking are necessary to change existing systems and structures and to improve quality of life in a sustainabl I accept.
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Seven regions have more than oil rigs, which can be broadly divided into four areas. License and Republishing.
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