MMS studies Gulf’s WWII shipwrecks

Kristen Nelson

Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief

The Minerals Management Service is working to make sure that there is science behind its decisions, MMS Director Johnnie Burton told the Energy Council in Anchorage Sept. 20, and as part of developing that science, is participating in a study of World War II shipwrecks, six of 56 Allied ships lost to German U-boats in 1942 and early 1943 in the Gulf of Mexico, and one U-boat sunk by the escort of a ship torpedoed by the U-boat.

The shipwrecks were located during bottom surveys required by the agency, and range in depth from 280 to 6,500 feet.

Burton said the shipwreck study is being done because MMS will be writing regulations for decommissioning deepwater production facilities, including completions on the ocean floor, and needs to know if it can require removal of just surface facilities, or if it needs to require removal of facilities on the ocean floor.

In the shallow shelf, leaving some structures has been found to be beneficial, she said: the rig to reef program has been a success. The rigs act as habitat for certain species and provide good places to fish.

But MMS doesn’t know what will happen in deepwater — what physical changes will take place in steel over time. There is decay “through microbial action on the steel,” and the agency wants to know how much decay and what does it mean — and are the deepwater wrecks providing habitat, and for what species?

MMS doesn’t want to make decommissioning decisions “until we have some scientific data,” Burton said, and the shipwreck study will give the agency “a good opportunity to see what happens to steel structures at various depths.”

The wrecks will also be tagged as archeological sites.