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NMFS issues IHA for Apache seismic Authorization forms one of a series of permitting requirements for continuing 3-D seismic surveying in the Cook Inlet basin Alan Bailey Petroleum News
The National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, has issued Apache Alaska Corp. with an incidental harassment authorization for the accidental minor disturbance of marine mammals during seismic surveying operations in Alaska’s Cook Inlet in 2013.
In a letter dated Feb. 15 to John Hendrix, Apache’s general manager in Alaska, Helen Golde, NMFS acting director of protected resources, said that the authorization would allow “level B harassment” incidental to marine seismic surveying in the inlet between March 1, 2013, and March 1, 2014. Level B harassment involves animal disturbance without the potential to cause injury or death.
Apache is in the process of conducting a multi-year program of 3-D seismic surveys across large areas of the Cook Inlet basin, onshore and offshore, as part of a search for new oil and gas resources in the basin. The company sees 3-D seismic analysis of the subsurface as an essential prerequisite to exploratory drilling.
The company is using a high-tech system of wireless, nodal seismic receivers for its surveys.
Authorization needed Annual incidental harassment authorizations form a key component of the permitting required for the offshore surveying. Without this type of authorization, any disturbance to marine mammals during survey operations could constitute a violation of the Marine Mammals Protection Act. Apache, having previously obtained a NMFS authorization for offshore surveying in 2012, had been expressing concern about the length of time it was taking for NMFS, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, to issue an authorization for 2013.
“While I wish it hadn’t taken this long I am pleased NOAA finally issued the permit,” said Sen. Mark Begich in a press release issued after hearing about the new authorization. “I was just in Anchorage and Homer and heard a lot of concerns about Cook Inlet development and the possible gas shortage in Southcentral in coming years. While Apache’s work is focused on oil exploration there is considerable gas potential as well.”
During a talk to the Alaska Association of Environmental Professionals on Feb. 20, Hendrix expressed his concern about the uncertainty surrounding the unpredictable timing with which federal agencies issue permits and he argued for more transparency in the permitting process.
“We need to work together to make sure we understand which direction we’re going,” Hendrix said.
A particular challenge is managing permits, to ensure that they all come together at the same time, without some maturing before the start of work, Hendrix said.
“If I don’t have the permits at the right time, I don’t have the access, and if I don’t have the access we can’t work. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
Apache is still waiting for the completion of an environmental assessment and the issue of a surface land use permit for the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge on the Kenai Peninsula, to conduct a seismic survey in Cook Inlet Region Inc. subsurface land which Apache has licensed for exploration.
Crabbing next? Offshore, Hendrix questioned why the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires Apache to obtain a permit to lay marine seismic nodes from a vessel, an operation that Hendrix likened to laying crab pots from a fishing vessel. With crab pots being larger and heavier than seismic nodes, maybe the laying of crab pots would become the target of a Corps permitting requirement, he speculated.
Hendrix also expressed a wish that the federal government would require bonding from people who appeal against permits — the issue by NMFS of Apache’s incidental harassment authorization for the company’s 2012 Cook Inlet seismic survey is still the subject of an appeal in federal court.
“Right now environmentalists can stop anything without having a bond and taking accountability for their actions,” Hendrix said.
Of particular concern in Cook Inlet is the potential for disturbance of the local beluga whales, animals that form a sub-species that NMFS has listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Apache has said that it did not encounter any beluga whales during its 2012 offshore seismic survey operations. The company has said that it provided appropriate environmental training for its people, deployed licensed protected species observers with listening equipment, and conducted reconnaissance flights before carrying out each seismic shoot.
The NMFS authorization for Apache’s 2013 offshore surveying stipulates a series of mitigation measures, to prevent wildlife disturbance, including the mandated use of protected species observers on boats, the use of a shore-based observation station to monitor for marine mammals and the use of daily aerial surveys, weather permitting.
Exclusion zones An offshore survey involves the use of surface air guns to send sound waves into the rocks under the seafloor. The NMFS authorization requires that during seismic operations, observers must maintain oversight of a 180-decibel sound level exclusion zone around air guns for cetaceans and a 190-decibel exclusion zone for pinnipeds. There must be no animals of the appropriate types in the exclusion zones for at least 30 minutes prior to firing up the air guns, and a power-down must occur if an animal enters an exclusion zone during a survey. A 160-decibel exclusion zone will apply for beluga whales. There are also seasonal restrictions on seismic operations in an important beluga whale feeding and breeding area.
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