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Environmental Stewardship, Flower Gardens (1 Viewer)

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Subsea

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The Flower Garden Banks exhibit that opened in the Aquarium Pyramid at Moody Gardens in 2017. (Image: FGBNMS/Drinnen)


HI-A-389-A, an eight-leg production platform, was installed by Mobil Exploration and Producing U.S. Inc. (Mobil) in 1981 at a location just outside the designated No Activity Zone for oil and gas production at the southeast corner of East Flower Garden Bank. This location is about one mile from the coral reef cap.

In 1992, when Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary was designated, sanctuary boundaries were drawn using the outer edges of the No Activity Zone and incidentally enclosed the platform inside sanctuary boundaries.

In 2002, the HI-A-389-A platform was acquired by W&T Offshore, Inc, which continued to produce from the platform until 2012.

March 2013, the Artificial Reef Working Group of the Sanctuary Advisory Council recommended partial removal of the platform, leaving the lower portion standing for fishing and diving activity. The council accepted this recommendation at its May 2013 meeting.

PS: In the winter of 1979, I was a young subsea engineer for ODECO and we drilled this well for Mobile before the Flower Gardens were designated a sanctuary.
 
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