1 What I would like to try to do today is give you a brief overview 



2 of three recent studies that are not even complete yet, we are in still 



3 in draft final reports on three different studies, but they relate to 



4 some of the types of information that you are interested in with regards 



5 to this canyon workshop. 



6 I am focusing in primarily on trace-metal levels and distribution 



7 in sediments around different types of drilling operations, because I 



8 think these would be some of the areas that you will be dealing with 



9 over the next 2 days. 



10 I am going to be summarizing three different studies, recent 



11 studies done by contractors for us. One study we did because we wanted 



12 to, the other two studies we did because we had to. We have different 



13 categories of studies in the industry. 



14 California was a study that we did because we had to, Alabama was 



15 a study we did because we had to, and the study that was done off the 



16 coast of Texas was done as part of our API research program. 



17 In these studies, this was an exploratory well in California, this 



18 is up near Santa Barbara, it is called our Molino prospect. This was 



19 actually a Shell operation. It was an exploratory well, one well, about 



20 3 miles offshore, 73 meters water depth. 



21 The well depth is right at about 11,000 feet, almost 11,000 



22 barrels of mud was discharged, the quantity of barite, was about 860 



23 metric tons, and this was done back in 1984. We are just finishing up 



24 the final reports now. 



25 In Alabama this is a well that drilled off of Mobile Bay, it was 



26 exploratory, a single well, about approximately 5 miles outside the 



27 Barrier Islands at the mouth of Mobile Bay. Water depth at this 



28 location is about 12 meters. The well depth is almost 24,000 feet. 



29 This is a very deep, unusual well compared to most of the ones we 



30 deal with. The volume of mud discharged was approximately 46,000 



31 barrels. We went from a discharge to a no-discharge situation at this 



32 location. When we got past 15,000 feet we broke over to an oil -based 



33 mud and quit discharging. 



47 



