Abstract
Offshore oil and platforms are found on continental shelves throughout the world’s oceans. Over the course of their decades-long life-spans, these platforms become ecologically important artificial reefs, supporting a variety of marine life. When offshore platforms are no longer active they are decommissioned, which usually requires the removal of the entire platform from the marine environment, destroying the artificial reef that has been created and potentially resulting in the loss of important ecosystem services. While some countries allow for these platforms to be converted into artificial reefs under Rigs-to-Reefs programs, they face significant resistance from various stakeholders. The presence of offshore platforms and the associated marine life alters the ecosystem from that which existed prior to the installation of the platform, and there may be factors which make restoration of the ecosystem unfeasible or even detrimental to the environment. In these cases, a novel ecosystem has emerged with potentially significant ecological value. In restoration ecology, ecosystems altered in this way can be classified and managed using the novel ecosystems concept, which recognises the value of the new ecosystem functions and services and allows for the ecosystem to be managed in its novel state, instead of being restored. Offshore platforms can be assessed under the novel ecosystems concept using existing decommissioning decision analysis models as a base. With thousands of platforms to be decommissioned around the world in coming decades, the novel ecosystems concept provides a mechanism for recognising the ecological role played by offshore platforms.
Highlights
Since 1947, when Ship Shoal Block 32 in the Gulf of Mexico became the world’s first offshore oil drilling platform (Aagard and Besse, 1973), the offshore energy industry expanded rapidly to currently number over 12,000 offshore installations globally (Ars and Rios, 2017)
The aim of this review is to evaluate the ecological role of offshore oil and gas platforms, and to assess these platforms against the criteria of the novel ecosystems concept
Offshore oil and gas platforms play an ecological role for a wide variety of marine life, from corals and sponges (Gass and Roberts, 2006; Friedlander et al, 2014), to fish and sharks (Dugas et al, 1979; Schroeder and Love, 2002; Pradella et al, 2014), to marine megafauna (Robinson et al, 2013; Todd et al, 2016)
Summary
Since 1947, when Ship Shoal Block 32 in the Gulf of Mexico became the world’s first offshore oil drilling platform (Aagard and Besse, 1973), the offshore energy industry expanded rapidly to currently number over 12,000 offshore installations globally (Ars and Rios, 2017). Offshore platforms are situated on the continental shelves of 53 countries, making offshore oil and gas production a major global industry (Parente et al, 2006). Significant advances in engineering over the last 70 years have increased the number of rigs, and the environmental conditions which they can withstand: offshore platforms are larger and found in deeper waters, further from shore. These technological advances have implications for decommissioning, which occurs when hydrocarbon production ceases or the lease ends and the platform is shut down. The decommissioning process takes longer, requires more specialized equipment and, by extension, has become more costly (Kaiser and Liu, 2014).
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