Texas company withdraws application for seismic testing off NC coast
A company that was seeking federal permission to map oil and gas deposits off of North Carolina’s coast using sound blasted from airguns has withdrawn its application.
WesternGeco, a Houston-based company, withdrew its application in a Sept. 4 letter to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees offshore drilling. The letter was brief, stating that the company was withdrawing an application it had first sought in April 2014 and providing no further explanation.
Last year, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality objected to WesternGeco’s efforts to obtain a federal permit, citing the Coastal Zone Management Act. Under the act, projects in federal waters need approval from states whose coastal zones could be impacted. North Carolina officials said seismic testing could harm a variety of coastal activities, including fish habitats, fisheries and the coastal economy.
The company had proposed conducting seismic testing from about 19 miles off of the southeastern coast of Maryland to about 50 miles off the shore of St. Augustine, Florida. Had the survey moved forward, the company proposed blasting during roughly 208 days over a yearlong period, with sounds ranging from 225 to 260 decibels.
“DEQ stands firmly with the coastal communities in the determination that seismic testing followed by offshore drilling is not consistent with our responsibility to protect our coastal resources and economy,” DEQ Secretary Michael Regan wrote in a statement on Friday.
WesternGeco appealed to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which granted that appeal in June. The agency’s decision is the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by North Carolina in August.
North Carolina officials, including Attorney General Josh Stein, indicated Friday that the lawsuit will move forward in order to address four other companies that have previously applied for permits to test off of the North Carolina coast.
“I am pleased by WeseternGeco’s decision and urge the Trump Administration to stop its headlong rush to put oil rigs off North Carolina’s beautiful shores,” Stein wrote.
Areas off of North Carolina’s coast are not included in the current five-year plan overseeing offshore drilling, a document that was produced under the Obama administration and expires in 2022.
Under President Donald Trump, BOEM tried replacing the document with a new version opening North Carolina and many other coastal areas to offshore drilling. That effort has gone quiet, though, since a March 2019 federal case in Alaska effectively removed waters from the Beaufort and Chukchi seas from consideration.
WesternGeco’s withdrawal came days before Trump announced during a Florida event that he had issued an offshore drilling moratorium beginning in July 2022 for waters off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina via executive order.
Trump’s announcement earlier this week caught environmental groups by surprise and led some, including Stein and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, to speculate the move was made on a political basis, according to the New York Times. The three states that received moratoriums are led by Republican governors. North Carolina and Virginia, which have also vocally opposed offshore drilling, have Democratic governors.
North Carolina’s Roy Cooper has repeatedly asked the federal government to remove the state from the Trump administration’s proposed five-year plan for offshore exploration. Friday, Cooper called WesternGeco’s withdrawal “great news” in a statement and called for more protections for the North Carolina coast.
Cooper wrote, “This fight is far from over, and our stance is clear — not off our coast, not today and not tomorrow.”