PART 2 OCS DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS 

 INTRODUCTION AND GUIDE 



This part of the report is intended as both an introduction to the 

 specific activities and facilities involved in development and a reference 

 document for the impact assessment which is the ultimate effort of 

 the OCS project. Sections to follow discuss the various aspects of 

 offshor and related onshore technologies that industry may employ in 

 OCS dev opment--techniques currently in use in the United States and 

 those un !er development. 



Offshore oil and gas recovery ventures are financed principally by 

 private industry. The U.S. government both regulates and provides 

 various measures of assistance. Offshore activities are initiated by 

 the OCS industry with geophysical surveys supported by geological 

 studies designed to locate structures and formations that may contain 

 oil and gas deposits. If industry and the Federal government agree that 

 an area has geologic potential, the government may hold a sale and the 

 companies successful in bidding may undertake exploratory drilling to 

 determine the recoverable hydrocarbon reserves. 



If sufficient reserves are discovered by exploratory drilling, the 

 operators will embark upon a program of field development to initiate 

 production. A development program will involve not only the drilling of 

 producing wells, but also the installation of platforms, separators to 

 process crude oil and gas offshore, pipelines or vessels to transfer the 

 oil and gas onshore, and onshore tank farms and plants for additional 

 processing. During the production period, additional wells will be 

 drilled, existing wells will be serviced to maintain production, and a 

 variety of techniques will be employed to stimulate lagging output. The 

 oil and gas produced are shipped by pipeline and/or vessels to onshore 

 facilities for refining and marketing. 



An understanding of the entire offshore development process is 

 necessary if one is to understand the full range of services, materials, 

 and facilities needed to support offshore activities. The impact of OCS 

 oil and gas activities will fall most heavily upon those onshore 

 communities which become the principal staging areas for offshore 

 operations, and which may become the site of energy transfer and 

 processing facilities. The spectre of these impacts, whether real or 

 imaginary, appears to have become the focus of OCS-related debate in 

 coastal communities adjacent to proposed frontier areas. Officials at 

 the local, county, and state levels are often unsure what effects, 

 positive and negative, they should anticipate. Little information on 

 environmental or economic effects has been available to ease or confirm 

 their concerns. 



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