BOEMRE seeks comments on OCS plans

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement is inviting public comments on its intent to prepare an environmental assessment for some work planned by Statoil in the Chukchi Sea during the 2011 open water season. Under the terms of the National Environmental Policy Act the agency has to prepare an environmental assessment, to evaluate whether Statoil’s proposed activities will have a significant environmental impact.

Comments are due by June 16.

As reported in the March 13 issue of Petroleum News, Statoil has used a 3-D seismic survey to identify two prospects in its Chukchi Sea leases and wants to conduct site surveying and coring, as a prerequisite to drilling in the prospects. The prospects are located about 150 miles west of Barrow.

The survey vessel M/V Duke will conduct shallow seismic surveys to detect drilling hazards, and to collect some data along potential pipeline corridors from the prospects. The drillship M/V Fugro Synergy will do core sampling for geotechnical evaluations at potential drill sites. The vessels are planned to mobilize from Dutch Harbor on July 15, to be on site at the beginning of August. Coring should start in mid-August. Work should be complete by early October, but could continue through mid-November.

BOEMRE says that it has identified a number of environmental issues that require evaluation, including the environmental impacts of seismic survey sound and vessel activities, as well as possible effects on bowhead whale migration.

—Alan Bailey