A non-producing and abandoned offshore platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico will be transformed into a working fish farm which could create a blueprint for future repurposing options for old oil and gas assets.
Innovasea, a provider of aquatic solutions for aquaculture and fish tracking, assisted the Gulf Offshore Research Institute (GORI) to secure federal grant funds to continue its plan to repurpose a defunct oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico for aquaculture.
The company said that the platform sits in about 150 feet of water and, as such, offers excellent visibility and is conducive to aquaculture.
As for GORI, it is a not-for-profit corporation engaged in the research of offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and how they can be repurposed once they are no longer producing oil and gas. According to Innovasea, the institute is currently working to secure relevant re-use permits for the platform.
The grant is coming from the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help the institute finance the next phase of its proposal to transform Station Padre, a former oil platform 25 miles east of Padre Island, Texas, into a working fish farm.
The Station Padre platform is no longer a natural gas-producing platform as it stopped production back in 2015. It was built by Shell in the 1980s and is now owned by Peregrine Oil and Gas.
“With the renewed push toward a low-carbon future, we believe offshore fish farming is the best way for the country to provide a sustainable, domestically-produced source of protein,” Kent Satterlee, executive director of GORI, stated.
“We’re grateful for this grant and are excited to put the funds to use proving the viability of platform-based aquaculture in the United States and elsewhere,” Satterlee added.
Dismantling a platform can cost up to $10 million and there are hundreds of these platforms in the Gulf of Mexico waiting to be dismantled. In 2015, the Government Accountability Office estimated it would eventually cost $38 billion to remove the 1,800 or so platforms from the Gulf of Mexico.
“This is a creative project that could potentially pave the way for the reuse of abandoned oil platforms and help spur offshore aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico,” David Kelly, CEO of Innovasea, said.
“Rather than spending millions of dollars to dismantle these pieces of ocean infrastructure – and disturb the ecosystems that have sprung up around them naturally in the process – it makes sense to explore productive new uses for them like offshore aquaculture,” he claimed.
This is also not the only way oil and gas assets are being repurposed. Some oil and gas platform jackets are being left in the water as they have now become coral reefs and have become home to various sea life.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) in October launched "THE RIG" which it claimed would be the world's first tourism destination on offshore platforms.
The fund is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic transformation plans for Saudi Arabia and manages a portfolio worth a massive $400 billion. “THE RIG” is a project in the tourism and entertainment sector, one of PIF’s key strategic sectors, expected to add significant value to the local economy.
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