Offshore Assessment Services for Latin America
Integral provides expert services in support of oil and gas exploration and development. We use our unique expertise in offshore oil and gas internationally to provide strong local support to our clients in Latin America.
Our team combines broad experience conducting environmental, social, and health impact assessments and site characterization studies for offshore projects with extensive project experience in Latin America and bench strength of a full-service engineering and science firm. With our collaborators, we have more than 40 years of experience working in infrastructure, oil and gas, industrial facilities, manufacturing, and international development projects in Latin America. We have been and are currently involved in offshore exploration projects for shallow and deepwater blocks.
As long-term service providers for oil and gas clients in the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the world, and with our specialized expertise, we can support the following areas:
- Project design, planning, and permitting
- Environmental impact identification, screening and scoping reports, and environmental impact assessments
- Social impact assessments
- Risk analysis, social management, and strategic investment plans
- Partnership building and social-license enhancement programs
- Environmental baseline surveys
- Site characterization management and scoping
- Environmental, geophysical, geotechnical, and metocean data analysis and modeling
- Shallow geohazards studies
- Operational monitoring and management.
UNDERSTANDING OFFSHORE PROJECT NEEDS AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
Our team includes subject matter experts who understand the Latin American regulatory environments and have professional relationships with key regulatory agencies.
Specifically, within the Mexico regulatory framework, many industrial activities are now classified as permitted activities, whereas others may be able to obtain exemptions from the permitting regulations. The environmental permitting regulations are administered and enforced by several agencies and any proposed site activity may require one of a number of environmental permits that our team understands. We can assist in the preparation and submittal of all required documentation for permit applications, and can ensure regular contact with ASEA and SENER for our clients to achieve progress with their environmental permitting applications.
The Integral team provides legal advice in the following types of industrial, power, and hydrocarbon matters:
- Extensive analysis of environmental projects, including environmental impact, emissions to the atmosphere, change of land use in forestlands, waste special handling, hazardous waste, water use, wastewater discharge, protected natural areas, archaeological zones and vestiges, and Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zones, as well as matters regarding hydrocarbon administration systems and insurance, among others
- Strategic design, according to the specific needs of each client, and process management to fulfill those needs
- Condition monitoring to ensure compliance with the terms of permit(s).
Project Experience
To meet regulatory requirements for obtaining the necessary permits to begin exploration, a company must conduct an environmental baseline survey, a social impact assessment, and an environmental impact assessment. Our team has successfully conducted these types of projects in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world in both shallow and deepwater environments. Specific examples of our project experience are presented below.
GULF OF MEXICO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION
Integral team members managed the environmental impact identification workshop, preparation of a screening and scoping report, and an environmental and socioeconomic impact assessment for Hess Corporation for the Tubular Bells and Stampede Development Projects, located in deep water of the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf.
The team conducted the impact assessment process, which provided an understanding of the potential impacts from project activities to the environmental and socioeconomic setting, and the means to plan and implement associated mitigation measures. These documents met clients’ internal process requirements as well as regulatory requirements.
ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE IMPACT ASSESSMENTS FOR MEXICO
Area experts from our team carried out desk and field research to identify affected communities and potential impacts in relation to existing and proposed energy projects in Mexico. Activities included stakeholder identification and mapping; diagnoses and forecasts in social, health, economic, and demographic terms; social impact and opportunities assessment; and mitigation planning in accordance with project needs. The team experience extends throughout the Gulf area. Projects include 1) the National Natural Gas Control Center of the Cárdenas sector, to identify social vulnerability and environmental damage as well as real and perceived socioeconomic impacts among the population near infrastructure and in the broader Ciuchapa and Molocán area; 2) social impact assessment consultant for deepwater block in the Perdido Fold Belt, near the maritime border of Mexico and the U.S., and for shallow water blocks in the southeast Gulf of Mexico; and 3) an onshore block in the south of Veracruz.
ENVIRONMENTAL BASELINE SURVEYS FOR SOUTHERN DEEPWATER GULF OF MEXICO
We have conducted numerous baseline surveys, impact assessments, and oil spill assessment activities in the Gulf of Mexico in U.S. and Mexican waters. Several of our team members were or are currently involved in offshore exploration projects that have been awarded in the ongoing auctions. Integral has conducted state-of-the-art surveys with our sediment profile imaging and plan view (SPI–PV) camera at several lease blocks as part of environmental baseline studies being conducted by BHP Billiton and Total, and a SPI–PV survey of a pipeline route offshore of Tabasco, Mexico, for the Mexican Institute of Petroleum. Our team advised and provided reviews for the environmental impact assessment being generated for blocks in the Perdido Fold Belt.
FEATURED STAFF MEMBER
Craig A. Jones, Ph.D.
Principal
Dr. Craig Jones is a principal ocean and environmental engineer with 20 years of experience in developing and executing engineering and science projects for government agencies and the private sector to characterize offshore environmental sites. His experience includes riverine, lacustrine, estuarine, and coastal processes involving hydrodynamics, waves, sediment, and contaminant transport.
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