Some offshore platforms never die. They just sink into the sea and become ecological assets. The massive steel structures jutting from blue waters in the Gulf of Mexico can serve dual lives. For years, they recover oil and natural gas far below the ocean floor. When the reserves are gone, many cycle to a new phase as underwater refuges for red snapper, king mackerel, cobia, shark and an assortment of other marine life.
Since the federal government passed the National Fishing Enhancement Act in 1984, the nation’s Rigs-to-Reefs initiative has been expanding. Today, all five U.S. states bordering the Gulf of Mexico have artificial reef initiatives. The programs allow industry to save money by converting obsolete platforms into reefs instead of paying the cost of hauling them to shore and selling them for scrap. Devon has teamed with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to create “Mitchell's 12-Mile Reef.” Located 12 miles southeast of Galveston, the Rigs-to-Reef site is considered by divers and fishermen to be one of the Texas Gulf Coast’s hottest spots for marine life.
After serving upright for 17 years as a production platform, Devon severed the structure into more than a dozen pieces and worked with state wildlife experts to distribute them over a 100,000-square-foot area. Everything from green slime to tiger sharks had claimed the rig even while it was producing oil. Scattered over the gulf floor, the severed structure is an even more powerful magnet for marine life looking for a place to hide, or a place to hunt.
Wildlife advocates consider artificial reefs essential to the ecosystem because the muddy gulf floor does not offer much of a foothold for plants and invertebrates to form a reef. Every rig removed from the gulf represents a loss of habitat. It saves money and creates an asset for the environment. The Texas Rigs-to-Reefs program is a good example of how the state and industry can both benefit by working together to find solutions.