Geophysical Research and Our Marine Environment
Authors: Bowles L.G. 
Published: October 2008

There is a need to continue geophysical research for petroleum exploration and exploitation, and for basic understanding of marine geology, and for assessment of energy and minerals resources. There is also a need to conduct that research compatibly with our marine environment. Modern marine geophysical research methods and operations are an improvement over those of 20 years ago, and even five years ago. Recent and on-going biological investigations have answered many questions and seem to confirm that modern geophysical research techniques and operations are not significantly adversely affecting our marine environment.

My employer is Halliburton Company, whose subsidiary, Halliburton Geophysical Services, has been on the leading edge of several industry-shaping technology and operational advances (both evolutionary and revolutionary). Those advances have been made to better serve our Government and private industry clients, as well as to operate compatibly with our environment and our neighbor ocean users. Along with the other companies who comprise the membership of the industry, we continue a commitment to working compatibly with our marine environment.

We are proud of our achievements in our science and equally proud of our environmental record. Notwithstanding present perceptions by a few people research continues to show that the modern geophysical research fleet serves a vital role in our society while operating compatibly with the maintenance and harvest of renewable living resources in the ocean environment. Those perceptions to the contrary concern us, and for that reason my company, and our trade association, continues to work with state, Federal and local governments, and with fishermen, and environmental protection groups to arrive at multilateral resolutions of concerns and real problems.

Halliburton Geophysical Services is one of the two largest full-service (land and marine) geophysical contractors in the world, and has conducted exploration offshore since 1934 - that covers over 55 years. During those years we and other companies have served the needs of our clients with advancing technology that responds to the increasing costs and complexity of finding and developing petroleum resources, as well as to the demands of our clients and other segments of our society for environmentally compatible technologies and operational procedures. Those developments have occurred during revolutionary social adjustments in our World toward a conscientious recognition of the interdependence between man's activities and our natural and man-made environment. Our advances in technology have also occurred (and are still occurring) during increasing demands for multiple use of the resources on, in, and under the oceans and along our coasts.

ROLE OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH IN EXPLORATION AND SAFETY/SITE CLEARANCE

The geophysical research industry conducts surveys of the ocean floor and the underlying geological formations in order to obtain basic geologic knowledge and to determine the structural and stratigraphic features of interest to clients (government and industry). Over 95% of the need for such data is for the finding of petroleum resources and the associated need for engineering safety data. Other ocean users benefit because of the basic oceanographic and meteorological data and information we collect that helps expand man's knowledge.