Recycling retired natural gas and oil structures (platforms) as artificial reefs has proven to be an effective tool for fishery management.  Fish, fishermen, divers, fishing support industries, coastal communities, the petroleum industry, and others have all benefited when retired and obsolete production platforms, already popular with offshore fishermen, are reevaluated and converted for continued use as fishery enhancement resources in the marine environment.  To date approximately 195 petroleum structures have been donated and converted to permanent reefs (i.e. RTR) in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

The first planned conversion of a decommissioned gas and oil structure occurred in 1979 with the relocation of an Exxon experimental sub-sea template from offshore Louisiana to a permitted artificial reef site offshore Franklin County, Florida.  Subsequently decommissioned oil and gas platforms have been deployed at four reef complexes offshore three Florida counties (see Table below). 

Decommissioned oil and gas structures however do not represent a significant component of Florida’s artificial reef program. There are reportedly over 1,650 public reef sites off Florida’s coast with obsolete petroleum energy structure at only five of these sites.

Offshore Florida’s Panhandle in Escambia, Okaloosa, and Bay Counties are seven large artificial reef areas which are presently permitted to accept petroleum energy structures, and are geographically closest to areas of active oil and gas production in the central GOM.  Furthermore, the Panhandle of Florida is the only Florida coastal area that has a strong local interest among recreational fishermen, and charter and dive boat operators in securing platforms for artificial reefs.

In Florida, local governments in the coastal counties initiate reef development and act as both project managers and permit holders.  Coastal counties usually spend funds to acquire artificial reef materials.  However, local coastal governments lack the funding resources to independently pay for the high cost of transportation of petroleum structures from the central GOM where there is an excess of retired and decommissioned platforms available for reefs.

In the past petroleum platforms for reefs were donated to Florida cost-free, and the donor (oil and gas companies) paid for relocating the structure to waters offshore Florida for artificial reef use. In 1993, for example an oil and gas company paid an estimated $168,000 to transport a platform jacket from offshore Louisiana to waters offshore Pensacola, Florida.

In 1997, active solicitation of and providing funding for retired petroleum energy structures at the state level by one office within the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (i.e. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) was deemed to be inappropriate when other offices in the same Department were dealing with permitting, environmental impact statements, and other issues related to proposed oil and gas production offshore Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Political and policy issues relating to oil and gas production offshore Florida have resulted in no active pursuit of retired and decommissioned petroleum structures as artificial reef in Florida since 1997.  No actual donations of petroleum structure have been accepted by or offered to Florida since 1993.

Unlike other materials historically used in the Florida artificial reef program, none of the Florida RTR structures have evidenced any storm-induced damages or significant deterioration since their deployment as reefs.  The Exxon Template structure withstood Hurricane Kate in 1985.  The Tenneco or Chevron platform reefs offshore Pensacola were neither moved nor damaged by Hurricanes Opal and Erin in 1995.  The only storm damage noted to any of the RTR placed in Florida waters was a bent platform jacket leg on one RTR structure resulting from the passage of Hurricane Andrew (1992), a massive Category Four Hurricane.