Offshore Mining Research Articles

Offshore Mineral Development in the Russian Barents Sea

Two Norwegian researchers examine the forces alternatively driving and hindering offshore hydrocarbon development in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. The paper describes exploration activities beginning during the Soviet period and extending to the present, the status of the major development projects financed in part with foreign capital, and conflicting regional and central government interests involved in such development. Coverage includes the emergence of Rosshelf, an oil/gas conglomerate formed to facilitate defense conversion activities of major naval shipyards. Critical to analysis of the projects' potential is assessment of alternative gas supplies and energy development strategies. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O13, Q40, R10. 3 figures, 1 table, 63 references.

Causas e conseqüências do impacto ambiental da exploração dos recursos minerais marinhos

The offshore extraction of marine minerals can cause several environmental impacts to the marine ecosystems, being the habitat destruction the main factor affecting the decline of the number of species around the world. Besides direct interference on the sea-bottom, the marine mineral activities can cause an increase in the water turbidity, affecting the local primary production. These activities can introduce and promote nutrient availability causing eutrophication. Otherwise it can introduce toxic substances that may be incorporated by the organisms, causing growth changes and alterations on the rates of reproduction and survival of the species. Current methods to identify the environmental impacts associated with the offshore mineral exploitation are centered on the reconnaissance of pollutant introduction and bio-availability, on the verification of measurable environmental changes and on the establishment of the relationship among the environmental response and pollutants. These methods apply three approaches: measurement of the pollutant concentration on the physical (water and sediment) and biological (bio-accumulation) environment; laboratory and field determinations of the organisms toxicity responses to pollutants; and field investigations of the ecosystem's structure and processes.

The exploitation of off-shore mineral resources

The exploitation of offshore mineral wealth is generally higher cost than from land based developments. Given the availability of adequate resources relative to expected demand, interest in the exploitation of most offshore minerals seems likely to remain minimal. There are two exceptions, viz. first, sands and gravels and second, hydrocarbons. Offshore exploitation of the former is restricted to shallow sea floor deposits close to nearby onshore areas of high demand. Their extraction is a highly localised phenomenon. Offshore hydrocarbons' production had similar locational characteristics as extensions of pre-existing onshore developments. Recently, however, offshore hydrocarbons have been increasingly exploited in their own right: in areas where market opportunities made such higher-cost operations economically and/or geo-politically attractive. The North Sea stands out in significance. Here, development has been highly pro-active, in terms of political, technological and entrepreneurial considerations. This has produced a unique geographical phenomenon in the maritime environment which will continue to be important for two more decades, and be extended to other north-west European offshore locations. What remains to emerge is the strength of its demonstration effect elsewhere, where the combination of the highly favourable circumstances of Western Europe for such intensive offshore hydrocarbons' activities may not reoccur.

Land, sea and human effort. Theme issue of the Norwegian Journal of Geography

The 28th International Geographical Congress will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands, from 4 to 10 August 1996. The main theme of the congress will be Land, sea and human effort. Themes to be taken up at the congress will include maritime planning, the exploitation of offshore mineral resources and interactions in the coastal zone, among others.

Processability Characteristics of Polyethylene Modified with 3-(Tetrabromopentadecyl)-2,4,6-Tribromophenol as a Flame-Retardant Additive

Abstract Polyethylene (PE), a general-purpose thermoplastic, finds wide-ranging applications in many areas such as packaging films, electrical insulations, housewares, pipes and tubings, etc. [I]. For certain applications such as the insulation and sheathing of power cables used for off-shore mining, flame retardancy is an essential service requirement. Some of the other applications for flame-proofed polyolefins include components for TV sets and waste pipes [2]. Flame retardancy has long been achieved by the use of additives based on compounds of elements such as phosphorus, halogen, nitrogen, antimony, aluminum, etc. [3-5]. However, the use of such additives should not affect the processability of the formulations adversely. This can be ensured by studying the processability characteristics of the flame-retardant modified polymer on a rheometer under conditions of temperature and shear rate simulating those of the process to be followed. The Brabender Plasticorder has been shown to be ideal equipment i...

The impact of maritime boundary delimitation on the development of offshore mineral deposits

Many developing countries are keen to promote investments in maritime areas that are subject to overlapping claims or are even the subject of sovereignty disputes. The link between attracting investment for development of such areas and the settlement of the dispute concerned is the delimitation of the boundaries of the area. The settlement of overlapping claims in maritime zones has led to the development of hard mineral and petroleum deposits in border areas. This has been clearly demonstrated in the North Sea and the Persian Gulf in the case of petroleum. Where there is a failure to settle overlapping claims, as in the South China Sea and Aegean Sea areas, investors tend to avoid such areas. However, in a growing number of cases, coastal states have resorted to the joint development of mineral deposits in areas of overlapping claims in the absence of an agreement to settle their claims, as is evidenced in the Red Sea region with respect to minerals (Sudan and Saudi Arabia) and the Timor Sea in the case of petroleum (Indonesia and Australia).

Effective exploitation of some mineral deposits along the continental margin of Kerala, India

Much advance has been made in offshore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in India. Yet the same amount of success has not been achieved in the case of other offshore minerals that are amenable for mining. The pace of exploratory efforts is retarded by the lack of technical knowledge of marine mining. However, because of present technology, there should not be any difficulty in successful mining with minimum environmental hazards. In this paper, an effort is made to bring to light the marine mineral resources available in the continental margin of Kerala, India, and the problems to be solved in the mining of the economically viable resources.

Australian Institute of Marine Science

Through its basic marine research over the past twenty years, the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has become a recognised marine science research authority, particularly in relation to corals and mangroves. Over the past five years, it has been working at a moderate level of applied research with industry and is intent on building on this interaction by focusing in several select areas within activity related to industry; namely, food (including mariculture), offshore minerals, oil and gas (particularly in relation to environmental management), pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, instrumentation, tourism (with respect to management of the environment) and in consultancy services.

Thomas B. Nolan 1901–1992

AGU Fellow Thomas B. Nolan, of Washington, D.C., died on August 2 at age 91.Nolan was named assistant director of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1944 and served as its director from 1956 to 1965. During his tenure as director, the USGS began an evaluation of the effects of underground nuclear explosions at the Nevada Test Site, expanded the study of natural hazards—particularly earthquakes and volcanos, began training astronauts in geology, undertook photogeologic mapping of the Moon, took on the design and operation of the national network for collecting water data, and began a program of marine studies to evaluate potential offshore mineral resources. Nolan stepped down in 1965 to return to being a research geologist.

Quaternary sea-level fluctuations in the coastal area of eastern Thailand: a synoptic view in relation to mineral resources exploration

The coast of eastern Thailand extends from Sattahip in the west to Ko Chang in the east. Its shoreline displays scalloped features and arches towards the southeast. The area consists of sediment-filled embayments (85%) separated by bedrock headlands (15%). Data from offshore mineral exploration during the 1988–1989 survey in area-1 of the Offshore Mineral Exploration in the Gulf of Thailand Project revealed some interesting evidence of sea-level fluctuations both onshore and offshore. An old beach barrier has been found at the water depth of about 20 m and at a distance of approximately 10 km offshore. This barrier has been traced and its trend appears likely to link rock outcrops at Hin Chalam in the west, through the southern tip of Ko Samet, and the outcrops at the middle of area 1-E in the east. This old shoreline is parallel to the present shoreline and is thought to have been formed during the postglacial marine transgression period in the early Holocene (6000–8000 yr BP) when sea-level was about 20 m lower than present. Some composite barriers have been located beyond a depth of 20 m and are evidence for Pleistocene interstadials. These interstadials would have influenced marine erosion of the inferred gem-bearing basalts found in area 1-E.

Indonesia's National Policy on Offshore Mineral Resources: Some Legal Issues 1

Indonesia's National Policy on Offshore Mineral Resources: Some Legal Issues 1

海底炭田開発のための沖合人工島建設による通気立坑開削の可能性

The undersea mining coal mines with the abundant valuable reserves in offshore area have been limited to working in the range of several kilometers for reason of the limited distance of ventilation. The paper presents the feasible guidelines that the possibility of sinking ventilation shaft through the offshore manmade island construction to extend the offshore mining area will be given to us from the safe and economical points of view.

Returns to Society from Offshore Hard Mineral Resource Development: special Interests Are Seeking to Monopolize Public Land Under the Sea by Doing Away with the 1953 Act

Abstract. A combination of the recently proclaimed extension of the offshore U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone to 200 miles and the growing demand for critical metals has led to increased attention to offshore hard mineral resource development. The U.S. Minerals Management Service began to establish the rules to govern offshore mining under its Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 and its 1978 amendments. However, others—including environmental groups, some mining groups and many coastal states— joined together to generate an alternative law to govern offshore mining. Both approaches seek to promote the public's interest in offshore hard minerals. This article examines the returns to society as a concept and as applied under each of these competing alternatives. It concludes by noting that socially derived criteria point to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act as the socially preferable approach to offshore mining.

The coastal zone as an administrative entity for governing U.S. marine minerals development

The coastal zone is being promoted as a spatial unit to coordinate and administer offshore minerals development with other coastal uses. Rather than aiding the administration of minerals development , the coastal zone is being used as the reason to block such development. This paper explores the coastal zone concept as an entity for administration. It concludes that just because minerals may be found in a coastal zone does not mean that physical entity is the most appropriate vehicle for administering mineral development. Arbitrariness at to what is included or excluded from a coastal zone as well as many minerals impacts being found outside of the coastal zone militate against such an entity being the sole criterion for decisionmaking. While the coastal zone may be appropriate for some mineral decisions, the choice to implement it must be arrayed against alternative criteria to ensure a high degree of effectiveness and efficiency in those decisions.

Prospects for Offshore Mineral Mining Remain in Doubt

There is no doubt among the oceanographic community that there will be an eventual need for offshore development of seabed mineral resources. But, with minor exceptions, that development for now has been put off indefinitely. Lack of knowledge, institutional problems, partitioning of bureaucratic turf, ill-defined influences of internationalization of industries, and vagueries of the marketplace all have played a part. Still, debate continues over when development, particularly in countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZs), should take place and how. Oil and gas exploration and exploitation offshore have been well established, and such sources are already supplying considerable quantities of energy and chemicals to the world economy. Nonfuel minerals, on the other hand, have received much less attention and, with few exceptions, are making virtually no economic contribution. This is the general picture of the present status of undersea minerals and their possible future development that emerged early last...

Joint Development of Offshore Mineral Resources — Progress and Prospects for the Future

Joint Development of Offshore Mineral Resources — Progress and Prospects for the Future

Two alternatives in national governance of marine hard minerals in the U.S. exclusive economic zone

Abstract Even though market conditions and expert consensus show minerals development is years away, two different approaches are being espoused for governing this activity in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. This paper discusses the events leading up to these two attempts to govern marine hard minerals and presents a set of criteria to define the national interest in offshore hard minerals. Using this criteria, the paper compares the two alternatives, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Lowry Bill, and concludes that amending the former would be preferable to passing the latter.

Structuring a U.S. offshore hard mineral development policy: Reflections on a seabed tenure system

Abstract U.S. jurisdiction more than doubled in 1983 when President Reagan proclaimed sovereign rights over an area extending 200 nautical miles from the U.S. coastline. A major question facing the nation is the definition of the land tenure system for the seabed in this area before any mineral recovery takes place. This paper summarizes the four basic regimes defining mineral tenure today and reflects on selected considerations for use in defining the seabed tenure system.

New Legislation Urged for Developing Seabed Minerals

Support is growing for establishing a new legal framework to oversee exploration, development, and commercial recovery of ocean floor mineral resources in the U.S.'s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Stretching a minimum of 200 nautical miles off the coast of the U.S. and its island territories, the zone was proclaimed to be under U.S. jurisdiction by President Reagan in March 1983. Development of new technologies to recover seabed minerals, concern for finding new, reliable sources of strategic metals, and belief in the inadequacy of the current statute regulating offshore mineral resources have combined to win backing for new legislation. Support for a new bill—with modifications—was expressed recently by representatives from industry, environmental groups, and coastal states at a hearing before the Subcommittee on Oceanography of the House Committee on Merchant Marine & Fisheries. The bill is the National Seabed Hard Minerals Act, introduced by Rep. Mike Lowry (D.-Wash.), chairman of the subcommittee. How...

Present and Future Maritime Security Issues in the Southeast Asian and South China Seas

The question of maritime security in the Southeast Asian and South China Seas is of increasing importance. The re-emergence of the politics of may be found upon observing the activities of the littoral states of the South China Sea as well as the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan. The assertion of 200-mile territorial claims by the regional states, the archipelagic concepts of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the continuing debate over the Convention on the Law of the Sea are all manifestations of national as well as attempts to find structural solutions to these conflicts. The maritime areas of Southeast Asia, including the South China Sea, are of interest not only to academics but also economists, international lawyers and strategists. Major sea lines of communi cation are of major economic and security importance to all nations conducting trade in Asia across the major straits and the South China Sea. Natural resources, especially hydrocarbons, offshore minerals and fisheries are becoming increas ingly important to the regional states. China, Japan and Indonesia will increasingly rely on fish as a major source of protein. Most regional states with 200-mile exclusive economic zones (see map) believe that oil and natural gas may be found in the continental shelf areas. Offshore minerals, especially tin, may be exploited by those states with proximity and know-how. Finally, these waters and adjacent islands are and have historically been points of political and strategic friction between the neighbouring states of the region. In this paper, the following points will be discussed: 1. That natural resources to be found in maritime Southeast Asian waters, such as hydrocarbons, fish and offshore minerals, will be the focus of increased competition and friction in the future. 2. That the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defined the issues but has, so far, failed to provide a satisfactory framework for the solution of all the competing interests of the interested states. 3. That an arms build-up in the region is in progress, especially in naval-related missile-armed fast patrol craft, patrol aircraft, diesel submarines and amphibious shipping. 4. That Vietnam and China have, to date, shown less restraint in using force than the other states which have maritime claims in the region. 5. That negotiations have been held between Vietnam and Indonesia and Vietnam