Qatargas relocates 4,500 Coral Colonies

An interesting environmental remediation effort was conducted lately by Qatargas Co. in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of a future pipeline corridor within the Company's expansion plan. This news item is from "Arab News" and I hope the truth is as good as the promotional highlight.

Qatargas has completed a major initiative as part of its ongoing environmental commitment for its expansion projects. The program involved the relocation of over 4,500 coral colonies from the future pipeline corridors for the Qatargas expansion projects.

The environmental program is considered unique and the largest coral protection effort conducted so far in the region providing protection to more than 4,500 coral colonies in an area that would have been affected by company expansion projects. The coral protection plan was implemented in close cooperation with the Supreme Council for the Environment & Natural Reserves (SCENR).

Qatargas' existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains produce approximately 10 million tons of LNG per year. With the completion of the expansion projects (Qatargas 2, Qatargas 3 and Qatargas 4), the total LNG production will increase to more than 42 million tons per year around the start of the new decade, making Qatar the world's leader in LNG production.

Qatargas conducted an environmental and socio-economic impact assessment (ESIA) in 2004 that included assessing and minimizing impacts to both marine and terrestrial environments, air, topography, soils and vegetation cover. A key recommendation from the ESIA was to move representative coral colonies from the areas affected by the pipeline construction activities to a safe and sustainable location.

In 2004, 2005 and 2006, Qatargas contracted Continental Shelf Associates (CSA) to survey the marine seafloor to identify the coral colonies located along the future pipeline corridors. CSA is one of the pioneers in the field of coral relocation and the Qatargas coral relocation project is one of the largest in the company's history.

The first step in this complex process was to identify a suitable area for the corals to be relocated. After reviewing satellite imagery nautical charts and working with the SCENR and local divers, CSA selected seven possible sites. Visual surveys were conducted and one site southeast of Al-Khor was found to be suitable. This location had the right water quality, water depth, hard sub-sea substrate and already contained live corals including those of the same species as the relocated corals. Removal and relocation operations started in October 2006 and continued over five months. Periodically, an environmental monitoring survey will be carried out to determine the success.

of the relocation program. The coral's color, health and any major changes to the surrounding habitat will be monitored. With the addition of the relocated corals, it is hoped that the biodiversity in the new relocation site will increase, and Qatargas has recommended that the new area be designated as a natural marine reserve.