NIce Human Interest Story on Environment and Black Elk Energy in the Gulf of Mexico

Link here.

In the last 12 months Black Elk has doubled in size- twice. Currently this successful independent is producing 20,000 boe/d. Not only has the company grown rapidly since 2007, but Black Elk just won an award for the Best Places to Work from Houston Business Journal.

As someone who has worked in the offshore environment for the majority of his career and is an avid scuba diver, Hoffman operates his company in an environmentally responsible manner. When Hoffman started Black Elk Energy, his awareness of the tremendous ecosystems that form on platforms over 50 years increased dramatically as he viewed diver video taken during normal regulatory inspections. These ecosystems are home to precious fish and marine life, including some endangered species. Understanding the beauty under the water and impending destruction that faced these marine habitats, Hoffman's passion to make a difference took a new turn. Thus he started the "Save the Blue" initiative to protect and preserve ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's been documented that each platform has 10-30,000 fish and mammals that use the ecosystem as a habitat," Hoffman says. "Is it right that we should destroy these ecosystems, because of outdated regulations that call for the removal of structures and pipelines? The Endangered Species Act of 1973 prohibits me from disturbing or destroying these ecosystems. It further states that if endangered animals and mammals utilize that habitat, it is protected under the law as well. One law says I have to remove the platform, and another says I can't touch it. Therein lays the conflict and the need to make a change."

By the way, this law is very, very stringent. Whale researchers are not allowed to introduce noise underwater to see how whales respond because the noise can be said to harass the whales. Source: Thousand-Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound, David Rothenberg, c. 2010 (paperback).

So, this is exactly what Hoffman is up against: it is clear that marine animals utilize manmade structures such as oil platforms and pipelines, but once utilized one law says the structures can't be touched, whereas another law says the structures must be monitored, or maintained, or fixed. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.