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| | | Offshore, Oil, Gas and Mining |
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| | The offshore oil and gas industry is involved in the exploration, production, and transport of oil and gas from under the oceans bottom to refineries around the world. Industrial activities are designed with ocean conditions as a key engineering variable. In the exploration and production phases, dependent upon the type of drilling equipment, crews may either ride out storms or, in extreme cases, must be evacuated to shore. Some countries strictly regulate offshore energy activities with concern for effects on the environment and human safety. Potential impacts of a changing climate that may effect the way in which industry operates include warming temperatures, increased frequency and intensity of storm events, and changing ocean currents and bottom stratigraphy. Thawing ice may make some offshore circumpolar areas more accessible but the same thawing will be detrimental to containment of wastes stored in ice and frozen soils and to coastal ice roads that allow transit across tundra. Increased storm activity may limit available days of activity on the high seas. In the coastal zone, drilling, installation of pipelines, and canalization of wetlands for work boats may further jeopardize coastal habitats and the organisms dependent upon them, by fragmenting the land and increasing its vulnerability to rising sea level. Shifting sediments compacting and sinking into spaces in the earths surface once filled with oil, gas, or water may jeopardize the safety of pipelines, exposing them and increasing the incidence of rupture and spills. Northern passages above Canada and the arctic states may be more navigable by tankers increasing the safety of transoceanic transport of products. | | | | Industry may adapt through new engineering approaches that take advantage of ease of navigation and improved ability to prepare for storm events and their potential damages. By developing less invasive means of transporting crude and refined products, and modifying drilling techniques to decrease the volume and toxicity of discharges, they may be able to limit their contribution to factors adding additional stress to changing environment of organisms in the coastal waters and open oceans. Exposures of pipelines and other infrastructure, due to shifting land sediments, may provide opportunities to modernize and replace vulnerable and aging structures with innovative approaches and materials. | | | | |
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| Greenland Opens New Round of Concessions for Oil Exploration in Fragile Arctic
by Olsen, Jan M., Associated Press 18 July 2006 | |
| | Several of the world's largest oil companies hope to tap into possible offshore oil and gas reserves as Greenland opened a new round of concessions Tuesday for exploration licenses in the fragile Arctic region. | |
Read more at http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10887.
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