Hurricanes, Subaqueous Mudslides and Damaged Pipelines Effect on Louisiana's Offshore Oil Industry

摘要

With billions of dollars of investment offshore, hurricanes are more than newsworthy events, since the economic fallout from such a storm can be extensive, both in lost infrastructure and lost production. Even though engineering designs take hurricane impacts into account, a Category 3, 4, or 5 storm can disrupt the orderly movement of mineral fluids onshore. Hurricanes Isidore and Lili in 2002, and Charley, Frances, and Ivan in 2004, illustrate the problems and concerns in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Offshore platforms are producing from water depths approaching 3,048 m (10,000 ft). To move hydrocarbons ashore, the industry depends on 53,108 km (33,000 mi) of low-tech pipelines laid along the seabed to move oil and gas to shore. With Hurricane Ivan, ocean-bottom sediment re-distribution and mass wasting along the unstable bottom associated with Mississippi River's delta front, caused considerable problems, particularly in the Mississippi Canyon and Main Pass areas just offshore from the River's mouth. Large waves from this storm triggered subaqueous mudslides, or submarine avalanches, that overran the industry's underwater infrastructure, perhaps with as much as 30.4 m (100 ft) of sediments. Catastrophic slope failure damaged at least 14 pipelines and were probably far more destructive to the Gulf of Mexico's oil and natural gas industry than Ivan's winds, waves or currents. Moreover, when these pipelines are out of service, they may affect more than one reservoir and more than one company. Spills from this event are well documented. This paper, therefore, will address some of the issues and concerns associated with hurricanes, mudslides, and damaged pipelines.