The Regulation of Seismic Exploration in the United States

Editor’s Note: The Washington examiner posted the above-tilted article, which reads as follows—

“A federal district court judge recently blocked the Trump administration from approving oil leases off the coast of Alaska. The decision is terrible news for American workers, who will lose out on thousands of jobs if it stands.

Fortunately, the judge’s opinion contains more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. The administration would be wise to finalize its offshore drilling plans. That way, officials will be ready to greenlight leases and permits as soon as higher courts overturn the judge’s flawed ruling.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from Hilcorp Alaska for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to construction and operation of the Liberty Drilling and Production Island, over the course of five years. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is proposing regulations to govern that take, and requests comments on the proposed regulations.

NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorization and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.  In order to be considered, comments and information must be received by NMFS no later than June 28, 2019.

The International Association of Geophysical Contractors Posted the above-titled article By The Brunswick News on one of IAGC’s websites. This article reads as follows:

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management remains working on seismic airgun testing permits — a key prerequisite to offshore oil and gas drilling — while issues regarding the legality of the Trump administration’s offshore leasing plan work their way through the federal court system.

Read more – https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/interior-nine-seismic-testing-permits-in-process/article_48ef9085-261c-5224-9339-c741f3754120.html “

Various parties are challenging NOAA/NMFS issuance of Incidental Take Authorizations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act for oil and gas seismic exploration in the Atlantic Ocean.  This litigation is filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

In a separate case, League of Conservation Voters v. Trump, Case No. 3:17-cv-00101 (D. Alaska), the Alaska Court held that President Trump had no authority to modify President Obama’s prior leasing withdrawals under OCSLA. These Obama leasing withdrawals affected the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.

The South Carolina seismic litigation Court asked the Government to explain whether the Alaska leasing litigation court’s decision affected the seismic litigation.

The Marine Mammal Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, 21 May 2019 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m; Wednesday, 22 May 2019 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m; Thursday, 23 May 2019 from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The Commission and the Committee also will meet in executive session on Thursday, 23 May 2019, 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

These meetings will be held at the Keauhou Ballroom, Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keahou Bay, 78-128 Ehukai Street, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service received a request from the U.S. Navy to extend the expiration date from December 2023 to December 2025 for Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) regulations authorizing the take of marine mammals incidental to Navy training and testing activities conducted in the Hawaii-Southern California Training and Testing Study Area. In August 2018, the MMPA was amended by the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019 to allow for seven-year authorizations for military readiness activities, as compared to the previously allowed five years. The Navy’s activities qualify as military readiness activities pursuant to the MMPA as amended by the NDAA for FiscalYear 2004.

Global News posted the above titled article, which reads in part as follows:

“Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson unveiled new standards for marine protected areas in Canada on Thursday, fully prohibiting oil-and-gas activity, as well as mining, waste-dumping and bottom-trawling.

The change implements recommendations made to the government last year by an advisory panel, and brings Canada up to international standards set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.”

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Oilfield Technology posted the above titled article, which reads as follows:

“Sercel has announced that deployment of its QuietSeaTM Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) system has been extended to the UK, following approval by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) of its use for a seismic survey operated by CGG in waters off the Shetland Islands.