Underwater noise from offshore oil production vessels

Abstract

Underwater acoustic recordings of six Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels moored off Western Australia are presented. Monopole source spectra were computed for use in environmental impact assessments of underwater noise. Given that operations on the FPSOs varied over the period of recording, and were sometimes unknown, the authors present a statistical approach to noise level estimation. No significant or consistent aspect dependence was found for the six FPSOs. Noise levels did not scale with FPSO size or power. The 5th, 50th (median), and 95th percentile source levels (broadband, 20 to 2500 Hz) were 188, 181, and 173 dB re 1 μPa @ 1 m, respectively.