Overview

This Environmental Assessment (EA) addresses the potential effects of oil and gas exploration, development, and production operations in the deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) during the 10-year period 1998-2007. The western and central portions of the northern Gulf of Mexico constitute one of the world's major oil and gas producing areas, and have proved a steady and reliable source of crude oil and natural gas for more than 50 years. The pace of exploration and development in the deepwater (water depths greater than 1,000 ft [305 m]) Gulf of Mexico has accelerated rapidly in the last few years. In these water depths, the use of conventional, bottom-founded (fixed) platforms quickly becomes technologically infeasible and uneconomic. As new discoveries are made in progressively deeper water, the technology continues to evolve to meet technical, environmental, and economic needs of deepwater development. As a supplement to this EA, the MMS has prepared a series of technical papers that provide a summary description of the different types of structures that may be employed in the development and production of hydrocarbon resources in the deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico (Regg, 2000).