Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jesse Spence
Subject: Oil & Gas Industry Noise Study Completed
To: Marine Trade Magazines
Date: December 30, 2008
Noise Control Engineering Inc. (Billerica, MA) completed a major study to identify current and future methods of reducing underwater sound from all oil and gas industry activities. The work was funded by the Joint Industry Programme on E&P Sound and Marine Life (JIP), a group organized under the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP). The report was completed in December 2007.
The report discusses noise control options for a large array of oil and gas industry activities including: seismic surveys, pile driving, underwater explosives, vessel operations, drilling and production, dredging, post trenching and aircraft. The 194-page report contains discussions of alternative sound sources for seismic surveys, sound reduction methods from existing air gun arrays, bubble curtains and barriers for pile driving and explosives, quiet propeller designs, machinery treatments for vessels and platforms, and many other treatments for various sound sources. There is also a discussion of underwater sound generation mechanisms for nearly all oil and gas industry activities.
As part of the research, Noise Control Engineering invited experts in the fields of underwater noise and treatment vendors for a two-day conference in Boston on the topic of underwater noise reduction for oil and gas operations. The event was held in Burlington, MA (suburban Boston) in June 2007. The report's main author, Jesse Spence, comments that, "The conference was a success and it was great to have so many knowledgeable people in one place to discuss this important issue".
Please contact Jesse Spence (jesse@noise-control.com) with any questions or comments. The complete report is publicly available at:
www.soundandmarinelife.org/Site/Products/NCE07- 001_TreatmentsForUnderwaterSoundFromOil.pdf