726 



40 



Appendix IV 



PAST PARTNERSHIPS 

 Appendix IV.A. 



Title: Eddy Joint Industry Project (EJIP) 



Issue: How can we identify and monitor Loop Current (LC) eddies in the Gulf of Mexico that 

 might impact offshore oil and gas operations? 



Relevance: Loop Current eddies range in sizes from 100 to 400 km in diameter, and have 

 maximum current speeds of 3-4 knots. Because they have the potential to disrupt offshore oils 

 and gas operations (or endanger life and property), their presence and anticipated movements 

 are of great importance. Eddy events along the southern Louisiana coast usually last 1-4 weeks 

 at any given site, and may cause a $100k/day losses. 



Background And Approach: Since the early 70's loop current eddies have been watched closely 

 by offshore industry and the Minerals Management Service (MMS of the Department of 

 Interior) as potential threats to operations. With the movement of offshore oil and gas 

 activities onto the upper slope in the mid-80's, effective means of continual monitoring was 

 essential. To meet the need, several oil and gas companies formed a Joint Industry Project (JIP) 

 to perform hydrographic surveys in suspected eddies and to deploy drifting sensor packages 

 in confirmed eddies. The MMS was initially performing independent studies of eddy dynamic 

 properties to support modeling, but opted to join the project and donated instrumentation and 

 expertise. 



Partners: Minerals Management Service, Exxon, Shell, Marathon, Texaco, Chevron 



Motivating Factor: The partnership clearly saved money for all partners, but a further bonus 

 was the sharing of ancillary data. 



Products: Charts of hydrographic survey results, drifting buoy trajectories, data transferred to 

 the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC). 



Impact Or Benefit: Over the period of 1985-1993, approximately 15 eddies were monitored, 

 resulting in greatly improved predictability of their general behavior and increased warning 

 time. The individual leveraging factor would have been about 6:1 as each company shared 

 equally in the costs. 



Lessons Learned: Although traditional industrial data management practice has been quite 

 conservative, the offshore oil and gas sector has been flexible and accommodating in the 

 cooperative work with a federal agency. A number of practical matters were identified to make 

 these dealings smoother, but no fundamental impediments were identified. 



