state permits regarding water and air quality may also be required 

 for construction. In addition, separate or extended permits may be 

 needed for operation and maintenance activities. 



Federal Role : Federal permits may be required for activities 

 affecting water and air quality at both the construction and operation 

 stages of development. Activities regulated may include channel dredging, 

 wetland alteration, and pipeline design and location. Dredge and fill 

 activities for channels or wetlands are regulated by the Corps of Engineers 

 under Section 404 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments 

 of 1972 and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899. The Fish 

 and Wildlife Service advises in this process, and if the Service objects 

 to Corps permit issuance, differences must be resolved between the Corps 

 and the Department of the Interior in Washington. Typically permits are 

 issued by the District Engineer with comment from the Field or Regional 

 office of the FWS. Pipelines are discussed in Section 2.2.4. 



Other important factors associated with coastal locations for oil 

 storage terminals include the protection of endangered species habitat 

 and operating permits related to air and water pollution. 



Development Strategy 



An oil storage terminal is required whenever transportation of oil 

 between the production field and refinery involves shipment by tankers 

 and pipeline. The reason is that tankers move oil in bulk quantities 

 whereas production and refining processes handle oil volume at a fairly 

 constant rate. Only small amounts of storage are needed when production 

 feeds directly into crude oil pipelines that pump directly to refineries. 

 Thus, oil production in areas with refineries will necessitate little 

 storage in the field. Storage will be provided at the refinery— partly 

 of crude and partly of products after refining. Production in remote 

 areas will more than likely involve tanker transport and thus will 

 require oil storage terminals. 



Oil storage terminals are planned in conjunction with offshore 

 pipelines and oil transfer terminals. Neither can be sited in isolation 

 since they are part of a total oil transportation system. 



Planning for the location of an oil storage terminal begins when 

 the field development plans are mapped out. The route of the pipeline 

 to shore and the location of the terminal are chosen to minimize the 

 cost and logistics of constructing and operating the total transportation 

 system. 



The volume of storage necessary for an onshore oil transfer terminal 

 depends on the production rate of the offshore field, the size of the 

 tankers served, the frequency of their arrivals, and the expected duration 

 of bad weather periods. Storage capacity should be sufficient so that 



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