‘Airgun’ Drilling in the Atlantic Wouldn’t Find Much Oil, but Could Harm Wildlife

A long-awaited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released Thursday by the Interior Department sets the stage for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to start issuing permits for seismic exploration off the Atlantic Coast in an effort to locate oil and gas reserves. 

The controversial process, which uses high-pressure underwater seismic airgun blasts, has been opposed by a number of groups on grounds that it causes undue and unreasonable harm to marine life.  Last week more than 100 marine scientists and conservation biologists sent a letter to President Obama and his administration urging them to “use the best available science before permitting seismic surveys for offshore oil and gas in the mid- and south Atlantic.”  The letter calls on the administration to wait on new acoustic guidelines for marine mammals, which are currently in development by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Tommy Beaudreau, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said that the Interior Department’s plan closes certain areas for the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and nesting habitat for sea turtles.  “We’re really going to require and demand a high level of environmental performance,” Beaudreau said.

According to Beaudreau, the current seismic information from the area is decades old and used now-obsolete technologies — estimates from the 70s and 80s put the amount around a modest 3.3 billion barrels of oil. Currently the Gulf of Mexico produces about 1,250,000 barrels of oil a day according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  At this rate the proven reserves off the Atlantic would be the equivalent of just over seven years’ of Gulf oil.  The area under consideration stretches all the way from Delaware to Florida and is twice the size of California.

‘Airgun’ Drilling in the Atlantic Wouldn’t Find Much Oil, but Could Harm Wildlife