A news item in the Houston Chronicle piqued my interest. The article, published Jan. 25, stated that the federal government was to begin a process that could lead to geological and geophysical surveys along the US Atlantic coast.

Good news. The problem is that a host of studies have been proposed prior to this taking place, not the least of which is an environmental impact statement (EIS) along the entire coastline. This is not to study the environment impact of drilling and production, mind you. This is to study the environmental impact of marine seismic and other geophysical operations.

The effects of airgun operations on marine mammals have been extensively studied in some areas. For example, a study of sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico indicated minor changes in behavior in only a few cases. However, the Atlantic is home to species of whales whose hearing is more likely to be affected by seismic operations.

The US Minerals Management Service (MMS) had a choice. It could have opted for environmental assessmentsfor specific surveys, which are much less rigorous than the impact statements. If they had, industry would probably be well on the way to acquiring one or two by now. The attitude of many contractors is, why not shoot the seismic first using environmental assessments to see if there’s anything there? Then any programmatic EIS can focus on subsequent E&P operations, including drilling and production.

But what’s done is done. Chip Gill, president of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, said the MMS filed a Notice of Intent to do the full-blown EIS, and while MMS still retains the option, any attempt to retreat from the EIS approach would probably result in lawsuits from environmental groups. So we’re on the EIS glide-path, and at the glacial speed at which American bureaucracy operates, it will be some time before anyone is allowed to shoot seismic off the East Coast. Meanwhile seismic contractors are watching the situation closely.

Spectrum recently announced its intentions to survey the area, although spokesman Joe Erickson said his company will have to get permission from the MMS. “As far as we can tell, the MMS is going to require an EIS,” Erickson said. “So we can’t move any faster than that.”

GX Technologies actually performed an EA prior to the MMS announcement, and Gill said the Fisheries department of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration felt GX had done its homework well. With the EIS pronouncement, that effort becomes mostly meaningless. CGGVeritas, SeaBird Exploration, TGS-NOPEC, and WesternGeco have also filed applications.

What companies are doing in the interim is reprocessing existing public domain and proprietary seismic data acquired before the 25-year leasing moratorium was put in place. Erickson said that most of it is 2-D data, although there is a small 3-D survey available in the public domain. “The data are so old that improvements are easily made,” he said. “We’re using new technologies that weren’t available back then.”

But reprocessed data won’t be enough for a thorough exploration program. Allan Filipov, sales manager for FairfieldNodal’s Data Licensing Division, said the play types that were being examined back then may be different than the play types that are of interest today. The region holds considerable potential; for example, the plays offshore Nova Scotia are indicated by a trend that stretches from Canada down the east coast of the US and around the tip of Florida, then comes ashore along the Gulf Coast. “The Jurassic shelf edge is buried onshore, and we drill it,” he said. “It’s the same age as that being drilled in Canada, and it’s similar to what they’re drilling in North Africa. What we need is better data to identify it.”

So the contractors and E&P companies are unhappy with the delay, and their sentiments are shared by lawmakers in Virginia. In a letter to Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior, dated December 2009, Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell said, “More than 15 months have passed since the United States Congress allowed the federal moratorium on exploration and development of oil and gas natural resources off the Atlantic Coast to expire, and President Bush repealed a similar executive order banning such action. This cleared the way for Virginia to be the first state on the Atlantic seaboard to explore and drill, beginning in 2011. Virginia is eager to get started.”

With a large reserve potential, that eagerness is understandable.

Meanwhile, Rhode Island has its own plan underway to study possible uses of its coastal areas. Already it has mapped commercial and recreational fishing areas, mapped marine transportation paths for freight and passenger vessels, characterized wave and storm surge, and identified the distribution and relative abundance of marine mammals and sea turtles.

There’s quite a bit of momentum to start looking for hydrocarbons in the Atlantic. It’s just moving very, very slowly.