Proceedings Of The Marine

FALL 2015

Proceedings magazine is a communication tool for the Coast Guard's Marine Safety & Security Council. Each quarterly magazine focuses on a specific theme of interest to the marine industry.

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18 Proceedings Fall 2015 www.uscg.mil/proceedings The Energy Renaissance is upon us. Thanks to improved technology that has allowed producers to extract oil not previously accessible, the U.S. has become a major crude oil and natural gas producer, and in 2013, the U.S. produced more oil than it imported for the frst time in decades. 1 As producers extract more oil, more of that product needs to get from the well to the end user. Since current law prevents most domestic crude oil export, it must move from the well to U.S. refneries. Natural gas may be exported, but it has to be transported to approved export facilities on the coast, then transferred to ships. Transportation Challenges Crude oil and natural gas are predominantly being pro- duced in a just few main areas, called "plays." Unfortunately, these plays are not located adjacent to the refneries where the product is refned and distributed, nor are they in coastal areas where the product can be loaded directly onto ships for transport to other destinations. While pipelines are ideal for moving oil from the coastal regions to inland regions, the pipeline infra- structure to move domestic oil from the plays in which they are found to the refneries (many of which are in the Gulf Coast region) is not developed. This crude oil and gas typically moves to the refnery via multiple transportation modes, including maritime conveyance. For example, movement by barge through the inland river system to coastal refneries is increasing, and as a result, more than 300 tank barges were delivered to end users in 2013, up from 261 in 2012. 2 This addi- tional barge movement means more traffc on our already busy waterways. Additionally, much of the refned material will be shipped from coastal ports to other ports in and outside of the U.S., increasing traf- fc and demand on these harbors and shipping lanes. The growing number of vessels also increases the risk for collisions, allisions, groundings, and security and Energy Renaissance Waterway Impact Managing the nation's waterways as demand increases. by LCDR JAMiE bigbiE U.S. Coast Guard Offce of Waterways and Ocean Policy New Energy and Its Maritime Impacts The Coast Guard utilizes several tools to ensure the safety and secu- rity of the nation's waterways. While the Coast Guard captain of the port uses various tools to address emergent situations that occur with little to no warning, others are designed to include input from waterway users, and the process for gathering input and evaluating needs may span several months.

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