Advanced environmental monitoring solutions for the oil and gas industry in the Atlantic Frontier
Lead Research Organisation:
Heriot-Watt University
Department Name: Sch of Energy, Geosci, Infrast & Society
Abstract
Exploration and production in the Atlantic Margin are underway in the Faroe Shetland Basin and northern North Sea, with viable or possible petroleum prospects in the Rockall Tough and Hatton Basin, and much of the UK's undiscovered sources in the region (DECC, 2009). Operations in these biologically rich, productive but sensitive areas will occur in data-limited environments very different to the shallow-water systems where environmental assessment methods were first developed: thus, there is clear scope for mutually beneficial joint Science-Industry partnerships in this frontier environment.
Benthic biological changes near industry operations can occur for many reasons. This can confound the impact assessment and monitoring process: benthos in the mature North Sea basin show profound spatial and temporal changes, but industry effects could not be clearly discerned from other potential agents of change using standard multivariate statistics (Kingston et al. 2001). Recent NERC and industry-funded research re-visited these data using more sophisticated methods, finding that regional far-field benthos often changed more in response to oceanography than to industry activity. NERC research also shows similar temporal changes in the deep northeast Atlantic (Hartman et al., 2012). Unlike the North Sea, the Atlantic Margin experiences little oil and gas production and offers unique opportunities to obtain measures of baseline environmental variability before large-scale drilling and production begins. Environmental monitoring and the UK's capacity to detect or mitigate industry-related changes are important in the UK sector, to neighbouring countries and to comparable settings worldwide. Without an understanding of natural environmental variability and how this induces change in seafloor faunal communities, it will be very difficult to appropriately assess, monitor, or mitigate potential impacts of the industry.
NERC's EEL, NEMO, and BGS sediment data can provide the industry with an unsurpassed archive of ocean temperatures, salinities, seabed stress, sediment particle size and metal concentrations across the Atlantic Margin, all of which influence benthic biodiversity. NERC data will underpin our new GIS tool that will be enhanced by addition of benthic biological, sediment and chemical data from the UK Benthos database (Oil and Gas UK), the SERPENT project (NOC), AFEN, DTI-SEA surveys, and the Western Frontiers Association (BGS). These maps and new measures of baseline variability in benthic communities from the SEA4 area will permit us to make clear evidence-based recommendations for monitoring.
Ultimately it will help end users such as operators and regulators achieve safe and environmentally sustainable operations in this economically important, biologically diverse and ecologically sensitive region. The industry needs tools to rapidly and regularly appraise environmental impacts to meet the UK's obligations to OSPAR (OSPAR, 2010) and the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC; MSFD). The MSFD's criteria of good environmental status must result in the UK being able to assess the "scale, distribution and intensity of the pressures and the extent, vulnerability and resilience of the different ecosystem components including where possible their mapping, [which] allows the identification of areas where marine ecosystems have or may have been adversely affected" (EC, 2010). Meeting those obligations will only be possible through monitoring programmes that understand and account for natural levels of environmental and biological variability.
By fusing NERC's unsurpassed oceanographic time-series and geological coverage with other data, our project will assist users in helping the UK meet its environmental obligations under OSPAR and the EU MFSD by ensuring that appropriate monitoring protocols are implemented.
Benthic biological changes near industry operations can occur for many reasons. This can confound the impact assessment and monitoring process: benthos in the mature North Sea basin show profound spatial and temporal changes, but industry effects could not be clearly discerned from other potential agents of change using standard multivariate statistics (Kingston et al. 2001). Recent NERC and industry-funded research re-visited these data using more sophisticated methods, finding that regional far-field benthos often changed more in response to oceanography than to industry activity. NERC research also shows similar temporal changes in the deep northeast Atlantic (Hartman et al., 2012). Unlike the North Sea, the Atlantic Margin experiences little oil and gas production and offers unique opportunities to obtain measures of baseline environmental variability before large-scale drilling and production begins. Environmental monitoring and the UK's capacity to detect or mitigate industry-related changes are important in the UK sector, to neighbouring countries and to comparable settings worldwide. Without an understanding of natural environmental variability and how this induces change in seafloor faunal communities, it will be very difficult to appropriately assess, monitor, or mitigate potential impacts of the industry.
NERC's EEL, NEMO, and BGS sediment data can provide the industry with an unsurpassed archive of ocean temperatures, salinities, seabed stress, sediment particle size and metal concentrations across the Atlantic Margin, all of which influence benthic biodiversity. NERC data will underpin our new GIS tool that will be enhanced by addition of benthic biological, sediment and chemical data from the UK Benthos database (Oil and Gas UK), the SERPENT project (NOC), AFEN, DTI-SEA surveys, and the Western Frontiers Association (BGS). These maps and new measures of baseline variability in benthic communities from the SEA4 area will permit us to make clear evidence-based recommendations for monitoring.
Ultimately it will help end users such as operators and regulators achieve safe and environmentally sustainable operations in this economically important, biologically diverse and ecologically sensitive region. The industry needs tools to rapidly and regularly appraise environmental impacts to meet the UK's obligations to OSPAR (OSPAR, 2010) and the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC; MSFD). The MSFD's criteria of good environmental status must result in the UK being able to assess the "scale, distribution and intensity of the pressures and the extent, vulnerability and resilience of the different ecosystem components including where possible their mapping, [which] allows the identification of areas where marine ecosystems have or may have been adversely affected" (EC, 2010). Meeting those obligations will only be possible through monitoring programmes that understand and account for natural levels of environmental and biological variability.
By fusing NERC's unsurpassed oceanographic time-series and geological coverage with other data, our project will assist users in helping the UK meet its environmental obligations under OSPAR and the EU MFSD by ensuring that appropriate monitoring protocols are implemented.
Organisations
Publications
Brooker E
(2018)
Scotland as a case study for how benefits of marine ecosystem services may contribute to the commercial fishing industry
in Marine Policy
Fox AD
(2016)
Sensitivity of marine protected area network connectivity to atmospheric variability.
in Royal Society open science
Henry L
(2017)
Marine Animal Forests
Henry LA
(2017)
Historic scale and persistence of drill cuttings impacts on North Sea benthos.
in Marine environmental research
Orejas C
(2020)
Towards a common approach to the assessment of the environmental status of deep-sea ecosystems in areas beyond national jurisdiction
in Marine Policy
Vad J
(2020)
Soaking up the oil: Biological impacts of dispersants and crude oil on the sponge Halichondria panicea.
in Chemosphere
Description | Findings are being collated as the project is on-going, but the data compilations for Atlantic margin ecosystems, geology and hydrography are all in place as outlined in our proposal. |
Exploitation Route | This project was disseminated to the UK offshore oil and gas industry over the last three years at multiple meetings as summarised in our submission to researchfish. It was particularly notable that Prof J Murray Roberts was invited to give a keynote on this and wider work at IPEICA's Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services meeting (Oct 2017) |
Sectors | Energy,Environment |
Description | This project is on-going and progress to date has been disseminated via talks and other activities. The findings and outcomes of the project will be shared with stakeholders at the end of the project. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | Blue Growth: Unlocking the potential of Seas and Oceans |
Amount | € 6,766,526 (EUR) |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 05/2016 |
End | 04/2020 |
Description | Environmental assessment of deep-water sponge fields in relation to oil and gas activity: a west of Shetland case study |
Amount | £100,777 (GBP) |
Organisation | Oil & Gas UK |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2014 |
End | 09/2018 |
Description | INSITE Data Initiative |
Amount | £88,043 (GBP) |
Organisation | Oil & Gas UK |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2016 |
End | 01/2017 |
Description | MASTS Community Project |
Amount | £4,700 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2014 |
End | 03/2015 |
Description | MASTS Fellowship |
Amount | £4,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2015 |
End | 09/2015 |
Description | MASTS Small Grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2014 |
End | 10/2014 |
Description | MASTS Small Grant |
Amount | £3,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2015 |
End | 09/2016 |
Description | MASTS Small Grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2014 |
End | 09/2014 |
Description | MASTS Small Grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2013 |
End | 09/2013 |
Description | SIORC Community Project |
Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
Organisation | Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2015 |
End | 09/2016 |
Description | 5th Annual MASTS Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Laurence De Clippele presented: Using novel mapping tools to constrain the spatial distribution of cold-water coral framework in the Mingulay Reef Complex Fiona Murray presented an eposter: Working with industry to collect ocean acidification data Johanne Vad presented an eposter: Environmental assessment of deep-water sponge fields in relation to oil and gas activity: a west of Shetland case study Alan Fox presented an eposter: Connectivity of Lophelia pertusa reefs in the Scottish Marine Protected Area network Sara Campana presented an eposter: Time-related gene expression profiles of HSP70 in the coral Stylophora pistillata after exposure to a temperature shock Sebastian Hennige had an outreach display "ScienceSea Sketches" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Blue Growth Data Challenge Workshop at Maritime Day 2017, Poole |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Workshop organised by Fiona Murray and Katherine Simpson and moderated by Murray Roberts. This workshop brought together key players in the provision, analysis, application and long-term storage of marine environmental data to discuss key emerging blue growth data issues including oil/gas decommissioning and marine renewable installation. Participants discussed the challenges of providing holistic open-access environmental data; the issue of enabling regulators/operators/marine scientists to access information; and how to ensure that all marine stakeholders can access appropriate data. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Blue Growth Data workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Fiona Murray, Murray Roberts, Lea-Anne Henry and Katherine Simpson hosted a blue growth data workshop attended by participants from the oil and gas industry, the civil service and academia to discuss environmental data issues |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Celebrating Scotland's Sharks, Loch Lomond Aquarium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Family fun day with talks, shark feeding sessions, an inflatable basking shark, games and quizzes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Deep Sea Biology Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lea-Anne Henry gave a talk: Understanding extinction risk in the deep sea: Hydrozoan prospects Laurence De Clippele gave a talk: Health status assessment of cold-water coral reefs using a morphotype approach Laura Duran presented a poster: The tunicate Polycarpa pomaria, a possible contributor to cold-water coral reef architecture |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | EMODnet workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Fiona Murray and Katherine Simpson attended the EMODnet European Sea Basin stakeholders meeting in Brussels |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | INSITE Aberdeen PI meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation to INSITE projects meeting, Aberdeen |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | INSITE Science Day 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Lea-Anne Henry presented work. The Science day 2017 is the opportunity for the INSITE scientists to share their work with the wider stakeholder community. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | INSITE Stakeholder Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Fiona Murray and Murray Roberts delivered presentations, Lea-Anne Henry prepared a presentation (delivered by Murray Roberts) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | INSITE Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Lea-Anne Henry presented work at this meeting. Symposium at the end of the INSITE programme. INSITE is a major industry-sponsored project with the overall aim of providing stakeholders with the independent scientific evidence-base needed to better understand the influence of man-made structures on the ecosystem of the North Sea. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Launch of a new deep-sea Oil & Gas DOSI Working Group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Summary of the work undertaken for the Atlantic Innovation project to a newly launched international working group sparked discussions on industry data and data networks, which highlighted many gaps in industry data provision but also opportunities to share data across the energy and other sectors. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | MASTS ASM 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Murray Roberts, Sebastian Hennige and Fiona Murray delivered presentations, Alan Fox prepared a presentation (delivered by Murray Roberts). Fiona Murray and Murray Roberts attended a decommissioning workshop |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | MASTS ASM 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Fiona Murray attended and presented. Others attended. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | MASTS Workshop: Decommissioning and Wreck Removal |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | J Murray Roberts presented on: Partnerships in environmental monitoring: The strengths of industry-academic collaboration |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | NERC Innovation Workshop: Decommissioning |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Lea-Anne Henry and Kate Gormley attended |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Oil and Gas UK Environment Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Alan Fox presented a talk: Connectivity of the network of Lophelia pertusa reefs in Scottish Marine Protected Areas |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Our Dynamic Earth Deep Sea Debate |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Professor Murray Roberts from the Centre for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology joined with other scientists, conservationists, fishers and politicians at Our Dynamic Earth Edinburgh to discuss deep sea fishing; its' sustainability and what the future holds in Scotland. Introduced by Stuart Monro from Our Dynamic Earth and chaired by Rob Edwards from the Sunday Herald, the illustrious panel gave their perspective on this controversial topic. For a scientific perspective we had Prof. Roberts who specialises in deep sea corals, animals and ecosystems under threat from trawling damage. Joining him was Prof. Monty Priede from the University of Aberdeen and Dr. David Bailey from the University of Glasgow, who used their expert knowledge on deep-sea fish to address the question 'is deep sea fishing a good thing'. Prof. Priede used examples from the past, such as the collapsed Candian fishery to illustrate how Scotland can avoid the extinction of their deep-sea species. Both fish biologists highlighted the wide-ranging impact of fishing, with stocks affected not just within the take-zones, but also below the fishing depth limit. Francis Neat from Marine Scotland brought a policy perspective to the table, showing how we are taking steps to make Scotland deep sea fishery sustainable, but highlighted the need for more data to improve the science basis for decision making. Mike Park from the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, represented the fisherman's view, showcasing the positive record for Scottish fishers. Mike emphasized the misinformation common to Scottish fisheries, and urged us to trust the fishermen, as it's in their best interests to protect deepsea fish stocks so young Scottish skippers have a livelihood in years to come. The panel was rounded off by Matt Gianni from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), who explained the EU proposal to reform deep-sea fishing in the NE Atlantic and ban deep sea bottom trawling - he emphasized that 'We don't know the value of deep sea Ecosystems so we don't know what we might lose.' A lively debate followed, answering questions such as 'In an ideal world, what would the fishing depth limit be?', and 'If you could wave a fairy wand, what would you want for deep sea fishing'. You can watch a video of the talks, which will be uploaded to the DSCC website later this week. The night was live tweeted, by the DSCC (@DeepSeaConserve) and Heriot-Watt Engage (@HWEngage). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Visit to Oil & Gas UK Environmental working group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Presentation of the plans for a new bespoke industry data portal showing industry data merged with academic data for the deep Atlantic region to the west of the UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |