Coral Relocation Mitigates Habitat Effects From Pipeline Construction Offshore Qatar

Abstract

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 170359, “Coral Relocation as Habitat Mitigation for Impacts From the Barzan Gas Project Pipeline Construction Offshore Eastern Qatar: Survey IV Update,” by Kaushik Deb, RasGas, and Anne McCarthy, CSA Ocean Sciences, prepared for the 2014 SPE Middle East Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainable Development Conference and Exhibition, Doha, Qatar, 22–24 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The Barzan Gas Project is a critical program to deliver natural gas to Qatar’s future industries. The project was expected to affect shallow coral communities during pipeline construction from Qatar’s North field to onshore. To partially meet the state’s environmental clearance for the project while supporting the state’s national vision, RasGas developed a project-specific coral-management, -relocation, and -monitoring plan that incorporated proven methodologies to relocate at-risk coral colonies to a suitable location. Introduction In addition to natural-gas reserves, coral- reef communities are regarded as a significant and highly productive natural resource in Qatar, providing refuge and nursery areas for many commercially important fish and shellfish species during portions of their life cycle. Corals off the coast of Qatar grow in one of the more thermally stressed environments in the world. Elevated sea temperature and other coastal pressures such as overfishing, port development, and construction have led to a decrease in local coral-reef communities. Recognizing the importance of these habitats, Qatar included measures in the Qatar National Development Strategy 2011–16 calling for the protection, conservation, and sustainable management of marine and coastal habitats and associated biodiversity. The RasGas Barzan Gas Project off eastern Qatar (Fig. 1) is a critical program for the state, delivering natural gas from Qatar’s North field to the onshore processing plant through export pipelines. As part of the construction phase, the Barzan project was expected to affect shallow coral communities through the direct physical removal of coral colonies from trenching activities and through sedimentation and a general deterioration of the habitat immediately adjacent to the trench. To partially meet the state’s environmental clearance conditions for the project, RasGas developed a project-specific coral-management, -relocation, and -monitoring plan that incorporated proven methodologies to relocate at-risk coral colonies to a suitable location away from both present and future development to minimize potential harm.