One article of interest
[ http://www.culvercity.org/uploads/press_releases/ParkOilWellsRemovedPressRelease.pdf
], has a quote "The Mayor and City Council of the City of Culver City
announced their gratitude, on behalf of the people of Culver City, to
the California Department of Conservation/ Division of Oil, Gas and
Geothermal Resources ("DOGGR") and Bank of America for their efforts
and contributions towards both removing oil production rigs and tanks
from Culver City Park and keeping the Park free from future oil
production activities." These oil rigs have been removed, but the pdf
linked to has some information on abandoned oil rigs.
One oil rig which is located "440 km NE of Singapore", is noted as an
excellent diving spot at this webpage [
http://www.vincentdive.com/divesite/anambas/udang.htm ].
It appears that one big reason to leave up abandoned rigs is for the
benefit of sea life as articial reefs. One website titled "On The
Job-Artifical Reefs" [
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/news/onthejob/artreef.htm ] mentions that
"In the 1980s, legislation was passed requiring oil companies to
remove abandoned oil rigs from the Gulf, and this created another
source for artificial reefs. In 1989, the Texas Legislature passed a
law which allows oil companies to donate the rigs to TPWD and pay a
fee equal to half of the company's removal and cleanup costs." Another
website on this subject titled "Why vertical surfaces encourage marine
life" [ http://www2.sptimes.com/aquarium/FA.3.2.02.1.html ], mentions
that "there are even rumors that local Texas and Louisiana fishermen
would prefer that abandoned oil rigs be left alone rather than torn
down.", since they encourage sea life growth and encourage fish to be
nearby.
According to this article on corporate responsibility, titled "The
Green Executive" [ http://www.spiritwest.com/serv04.htm ]; "Shell Oil
had to discover the impact of ignoring their responsibility the hard
way. When they attempted to sink one of their abandoned oil rigs, the
world fought back." A website that explains the controversy [
http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l28053.htm ], shows that
there are "600 other installations of this type in European waters,
most of them in British and Norwegian waters." So even though shell
found a use for this particular one, disposing of all 600 would be
quite a chore.
from "The Great Britain Sourcebook The Piper Beta freehold" [
http://homepages.enterprise.net/skyline/piper.htm ] It appears that at
least one oil rig has used parts from other abandoned ones for its
construction. "The freehold is now totally imobile and still gradually
grows every year which the addition of more boats and the
dismasntlment of old oil rigs from further afield, most are old
Toville Chemicals platforms or ones that Toville Chemicals have
purchased after they have exhausted the oil field of its resources.
This has enraged the conglomerate who fear the current oil field may
run out within the next decade and then the expensive platform will be
useless as it can no longer move as was its purpose." Therefore, it
seems that Toville Chemicals is one big owner of abandoned rigs.
Another link that may be of use to you is titled "Internet resources
on environmental issues of the offshore oil and gas exploration and
production" [ http://www.offshore-environment.com/decomlinks.html ],
which lists "websites that provide information about abandonment and
decommissioning of the offshore structures and their environmental
impact."
Research strategy:
://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=%22abandoned+oil+rigs%22
://www.google.com/search?q=%22abandoned+oil+rig%22&num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off
://www.google.com/search?q=list+of+abandoned+oil+rigs&num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off
I hope this has provided you with enough links and general information
on abandoned oil rigs, however if you feel anything is lacking, please
request a clarification before rating my answer, so that I may add
anything that I may have missed. |
