Advancing strategic environmental assessment in the offshore oil and gas sector: Lessons from Norway, Canada, and the United Kingdom

Fidler, Courtney; Noble, Bram

doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2011.11.004

Cited by 57 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…In Norway, for example, regional strategic EA is described as an effective process for determining how to move forward in terms of planning for offshore development and, in the context of offshore hydrocarbon development, where future leasing could occur (Fidler and Noble, 2012). However, Ketilson (2011), in her review of regional strategic EA in Canada's western Arctic, identified reservations among communities, regulators, and industry about regional strategic EA because its benefits are unproven.…”

Section: Applied Research To Demonstrate Regional Strategic Eamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Increasingly, scholars, communities, and environmental organizations are lobbying for more regional and strategic approaches to EA in the Arctic (Cherp and Golubeva, 2004;WWF, 2005;Voutier et al, 2008;Doelle et al, 2012;Fidler and Noble, 2012;Noble et al, 2013). Specifically, there is a recognized need for EA to be more proactive in its approach to planning for future development and to better assess cumulative environmental effects, including climate-change and transboundary effects.…”

Section: Opportunities and Mechanisms To Link Strategic Initiatives Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lessons reported from the Norwegian experience in the Barents Sea have shown some indicators of successful tiering (see Fidler and Noble, 2012). In 2006, the Norwegian parliament introduced its Integrated Management Plan, a process designed to capture all sectors in the offshore environment, assess total impact, and identify knowledge gaps and conflict areas so as to provide an overview of where and under what conditions offshore activity should occur.…”

Section: Opportunities and Mechanisms To Link Strategic Initiatives Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…EA provisions for Norway's offshore oil and gas activities are contained in the petroleum legislation administered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, which also provides for regional EAs before offshore areas are made available for licensing. In 2006, Norway introduced an additional framework, an Integrated Management Plan, to guide EA activities and offshore planning processes across the oil and gas, shipping, and fishing sectors (Fidler and Noble, 2012).…”

Section: Environmental Assessment and National Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Assessment in the Arctic: A Gap Analysis and Research Agenda

Noble¹,

Hanna²

2015

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. Environmental assessment (EA) is employed across the Arctic to assess, mitigate, and monitor the impacts of resource development. Despite the increasing pressures of resource development on Arctic communities and ecosystems and the growing demands for more efficient and effective EA processes, little is known about the needs and priorities of research that will help us to understand and improve EA and its relevance to Arctic communities. A gap analysis of EA research across eight Arctic nations, based on a review of the scholarly literature, government research and policy documents, and a questionnaire survey of Arctic EA scholars, addressed both project-based EA and strategic EA that focused on policy, planning, and regional assessment. Results indicate seven priority research themes: understanding community and stakeholder expectations about EA; assessing the efficiency and responsiveness of EA to rapidly changing socio-ecological and regulatory environments; examining the influence of EA on development decisions; addressing the capacity for meaningful engagement in EA; strengthening the relationship between EA and land-use planning and Arctic science programs; demonstrating the value of regional EA; and assessing the ability of EA to respond to the reality of climate change. These are not the only areas where further EA research is needed, but they are critical to the effectiveness of EA in the Arctic and to ensuring its relevance to Arctic communities.Key words: environmental assessment; Arctic environmental assessment; gap analysis; environmental assessment effectiveness RÉSUMÉ. Des évaluations environnementales (EE) sont réalisées à l'échelle de l'Arctique dans le but d'évaluer, d'atténuer et de surveiller les incidences de l'exploitation des ressources. Malgré les pressions accrues qu'exerce la mise en valeur des ressources sur les communautés et les écosystèmes de l'Arctique, et malgré la demande croissante pour des processus d'EE plus efficaces, nous en savons peu sur les besoins et les priorités de recherche qui nous aideront à comprendre et à améliorer les EE et leur pertinence dans les communautés de l'Arctique. L'analyse des écarts en matière de recherche sur les EE dans huit nations de l'Arctique, analyse fondée sur des articles scientifiques, des travaux de recherche réalisés par les gouvernements, des documents de politiques et un sondage auprès de spécialistes des EE dans l'Arctique, a porté tant sur les EE de projets que sur les EE stratégiques axées sur les politiques, la planification et les évaluations régionales. Les résultats de cette analyse ont fait ressortir sept thèmes de recherche prioritaires : comprendre les attentes des communautés et des parties prenantes en matière d'EE; évaluer l'efficacité et la réactivité des EE vis-à-vis des milieux réglementaires et socioécologiques évoluant rapidement; examiner l'influence qu'exercent les EE sur les décisions en matière de mise en valeur; déterminer la capacité d'une participation significative dans les EE; renforcer la relation e...

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Section: Applied Research To Demonstrate Regional Strategic Eamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Opportunities and Mechanisms To Link Strategic Initiatives Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Opportunities and Mechanisms To Link Strategic Initiatives Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environmental Assessment and National Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Assessment in the Arctic: A Gap Analysis and Research Agenda

Noble¹,

Hanna²

2015

ARCTIC

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“…Planning for and managing the impacts of offshore energy development require a more integrative and anticipatory framework than project-and sector-specific environmental impact assessment (Crowder and Norse, 2008;deReynier et al, 2010;Katsanevakis et al, 2011;Fidler and Noble, 2012). This is particularly the case in Canada's western Arctic Beaufort Sea (see IGC, 2004;BSStRPA, 2008), which is characterized by competing interests in hydrocarbon development, traditional use, and marine conservation (see Fast et al, 2005;Cobb et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stakeholder Perceptions of Current Planning, Assessment and Science Initiatives in Canada’s Beaufort Sea

Fidler¹,

Noble²

2013

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. Over the past 30 years, the Beaufort Sea has been the site of many regional studies and planning efforts. Currently, three major initiatives are underway: the Integrated Regional Impact Study, which focuses on science; the Integrated Ocean Management Plan; and the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment. Despite the mounting pressures for offshore energy development in the region, little attention has been given to whether these initiatives facilitate a more coordinated and informed approach to planning, assessment, and decision making for such development. We examined stakeholder perceptions of the existing initiatives to ascertain whether and how they enable horizontal and vertical integration and how effectively they facilitate marine resource planning and decision making. The results show that three essentials of a more coordinated regional approach to planning for marine resources and offshore development are horizontal integration between management bodies, vertical integration from the strategic level and regional scale to the operational level and project scale, and an overarching vision for regional planning and development in the Beaufort Sea.

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Resource Development in Arctic Regions

Kenny

Jukes²

2018

Encyclopedia of Maritime and Offshore Engineering

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Hydrocarbon basins in global arctic regions hold significant resources with economic potential to support an array of economic sectors including energy, transportation, petrochemical, agricultural, and manufacturing industries. Due to the harsh physical environment, northern and arctic regions present significant technical and logistical challenges that influence the development of engineering solutions through the design process and may affect the project viability and sanction with respect to technical or economic factors. One of the more significant hazards and extreme loading events encountered is ice gouging due to the interaction of ice features with the seabed subject to environmental driving forces. Trenching and pipeline burial is viewed as one of the most effective mitigation techniques used to promote pipeline serviceability and reduce the risk of pipeline damage; however, there are limitations and constraints with current technologies with respect to the maximum trenching depth and production rates that affect project logistics and economic risk. In addition, there are other physical environmental factors that present challenges including the short open water season, low temperatures, and presence of special terrain characteristics (e.g., hardpan, permafrost, massive ground ice). Current practice used to define system demand (i.e., geotechnical loads) and system capacity (i.e., pipeline mechanical performance) has limitations due to inherent uncertainties with the statistics of physical data sets, experimental techniques, and engineering models used in the analysis. Advancements in computational methods have provided improved engineering tools to analyze these complex nonlinear processes with probabilistic methods providing an objective framework to assess design options with respect to technical, economic, and environmental criteria that meet specified target safety levels. Consideration of cumulative effects, climate change, and sustainability factors add an additional layer of complexity to the engineering framework in terms of social context and political values.

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Advancing strategic environmental assessment in the offshore oil and gas sector: Lessons from Norway, Canada, and the United Kingdom

Cited by 57 publications

References 32 publications

Environmental Assessment in the Arctic: A Gap Analysis and Research Agenda

Environmental Assessment in the Arctic: A Gap Analysis and Research Agenda

Stakeholder Perceptions of Current Planning, Assessment and Science Initiatives in Canada’s Beaufort Sea

Resource Development in Arctic Regions

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