Rig becomes fish home

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 22, 2009 - Page: 10A

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An oil platform damaged last year during Hurricane Ike has found a new use as a fishery reef in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Shell oil rig is the latest addition to the state’s Rigs to Reefs program, officials announced Wednesday.

The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries program allows companies to place the lower part of the offshore oil rigs in selected areas to promote fishery habitat.

The program, started in 1986, has placed 232 rigs in more than 60 locations in the Gulf.

The latest addition is a rig first installed in the Gulf in 1972 and operated for years as a production platform, said Randal Abadie, offshore structures technical authority with Shell Upstream Americas.

In 2005, oil production was closed and the platform became a pipeline platform about 155 miles southwest of New Orleans, he said.

On Sept. 12, 2008, Hurricane Ike hit the platform with high winds and waves estimated at more than 55 feet, Abadie said.

Inspections of the above-water structure after the storm showed some damage, but repairs could be made.

It wasn’t until divers went under water that the extent of the damage was seen, he said.

Three supporting legs were broken and a number of diagonal supports were broken or cracked.

Company officials started working with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries on the possibilities of using the below-water portion of the rigs in the Rigs to Reefs program, Abadie said.

The first thing the company did was repair the below-water structure to allow for work to proceed top side, he said.

Then a pipeline had to be rerouted and all fuel and other hydrocarbons removed from the platform structure.