Summary
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) to analyze the potential environmental, cultural, and social impacts of partially funding the University of Texas at Austin (UT) to conduct high-resolution 3-dimensional (HR3D) marine seismic surveys in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The proposed seismic surveys would be conducted from a research vessel on the shallow shelf in Texas state waters. The surveys would use up to 2 Generator-Injector (GI) airguns, with a total discharge volume of about 210 cubic inches, in water depths less than 20 meters.