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MAXON CONSULTING – WORKING IN GLOBAL DEEP OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS Maritime Business & Technology Summit Environmental Monitoring & Mitigation Technologies & Services San Diego, CA November 29-30, 2011 1 Introduction • Overview of Maxon Consulting • Small woman-owned environmental consulting firm established in San Diego in 2005. • Most of our maritime consulting is focused on environmental issues relating to offshore oil & gas exploration/production • We also help clients with coastal environmental issues focused on permitted discharges to water bodies, ecological risk assessment (remedial investigations), and impacts to sediment quality • We use various maritime technology to monitor, measure, and model/predict impacts to sediment and water column habitats • Overview of technology – need and how it’s applied • Oil spill response • Remote sensors to map large volumes of oil in water • Environmental chemical/physical sensors • Obtain near real-time data at lower expense than traditional lab methods • Underwater and sub-benthic photography • Obtain data on habitat alteration and recovery at and around offshore platforms 2 Environmental Issues We Address in the Offshore Oil & Gas Upstream Lifecycle • Sound/noise in marine environment • Habitat alteration • Deconstruction debris & contamination • Potential spills • Invasive species • Habitat alteration • Water usage • Wastewater discharge • Sewage • Waste • Potential spills Seismic Surveys Decommissioning Drilling Pipeline Construction Staged Oil Processing Oil Transfer 3 • Discharged muds & cuttings • Produced waters • Potential spills • Habitat alteration • Invasive species • Wastewater • Waste • Habitat alteration • Noise • Waste • Potential spills, leaks • Invasive species Examples of Standard Environmental Monitoring Technology • Water column profiling of salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, & additional • Measurement of water currents using acoustic doppler current profilers 4 Examples of New and Developing Environmental Monitoring Technology • Germano & Associates – Sediment Profiling Image (SPI) & Planview Cameras • Simultaneous photos of sediment surface & crosssections of subsurface • Map the extent of drilling discharges, benthic invertebrate activity, & other discharges (e.g., sewage, construction waste) 5 Examples of New and Developing Environmental Monitoring Technology • Coastal Monitoring’s UltraSeep System: • A modular, state-of-theart seepage meter for direct measurement of groundwater plumes at the surface water interface. • Used to detect contaminant seepage into mostly shallow water habitats from land-based sources 6 Future Needs in Technology • Projects will continue to expand into challenging environments • Deepwater, e.g., >3000 m • Remote areas, offshore Africa, Artic, Indonesia, Eurasia • Requires technology that is: • Robust, relatively easy to ship, not too expensive to replace (if lost or damaged) • Can collect real-time or near real-time electronic data • Emphasis on visual data to more easily communicate results • Cover larger areas than traditional (discrete sampling) methods • Relatively easy to operate in remote areas • Universal power requirements • Easy to program 7