OFFSHORE-INLAND
Advanced oil and gas technology to save tropical
forests and indigenous cultures from destruction
Offshore-Inland:
Using one model to create another
Envision an oil or gas platform in the
rainforest, surrounded by vast untouched
wilderness, just as an offshore platform
sits in the surrounding ocean waters. This
technique, known as “offshore-inland” is
made possible by using modern technology to locate and develop oil and gas fields
and pipelines entirely by use of helicopter
transport and supplementary use of rivers
for barge transport during annual high
water season. Full development with no
roads is now possible and should become
the accepted and mandated practice in
the tropics.
Construction and production equipment
is transported by use of helicopter “sky
cranes”. Offsite processing facilities are located adjacent to rivers where equipment
can be barged upriver during high water
season. Export pipelines are constructed
by helicopter without roads, the pipelines
are typically buried and the cleared right of
way is allowed to reforest.
Offshore-Inland:
Examples
Camisea. This facility, which
is located in the Urubamba
River valley in a remote region
of eastern Peru, supplies
Lima and coastal population
centers with natural gas via
a pipeline that extends more
than 400 kilometers across
the Andes to the Pacific
coast. It is a closed facility without roads. The site is
closely monitored and access
is strictly controlled and restricted. Developed by an
international consortium led
by Pluspetrol of Argentina and
Hunt Oil of the United States.
Urucu. This facility,
developed and operated by
Petrobras, is located in the
heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Natural gas is exported
to Manaus via a 500 kilometer roadless pipeline that
extends beneath the
Amazon river and through
many kilometers of wetlands.
Workers are transported
to and from an onsite air
strip in two week shifts from
Manaus and Carauari. The
site has internal roads, but
no over land access from
outside.
Oil and gas production can easily
proceed without roads. Heavy
equipment is floated up river on
barges, and Air-Crane helicopters
facilitate the construction of platforms, production facilities and
pipelines. Here, an Air-Crane
helicopter helps construct a pipeline
on forested hillside in the Amazon.
Image courtesy of Erickson Aviation.
After the pipes are laid, they are
buried, and the forest is allowed
to grow back. Within a short time,
the canopy has regrown and
almost completely covered the
buried pipeline. The forest has
barely been disturbed.
THE ALTERNATIVE
Oil roads destroy other landscapes such as
Wyoming’s Jonah Oil Field, pictured here.
Image courtesy of EcoFlight.
Oil Roads:
Avenues of Destruction
Road building is the major cause of
tropical deforestation in many parts of
the world. Road construction opens
the forest to land invasions, timber
cutting and burning, unregulated gold
mining, coca growing, and bush meat
hunting.
Above: a satellite photo of
how roads lead to mass
deforestation
Right: Roads provide easy access to the forest for slash-and-burn
agriculture. Image courtesy of the Rainforest Action Network.
Ecuador:
A LAND DEVASTATED BY OIL
AND GAS PRACTICES
A notorious example of these destructive secondary effects
is the Yasuni region of eastern Ecuador where road building by oil companies has opened vast forest regions to land
clearing, loss of biodiversity and exposed indigenous cultures
to disease, exploitation and destruction.
Right: Oil roads facilitate the bush meat trade and lead to poaching
endangered wildlife. Image courtesy of Naturepl.com
To learn more about Offshore-Inland go to:
www.bluemoonfund.org/offshore-inland