Hints Suggest BP May Resume Gulf Oil Drilling

(MoneyWatch)  BP recently "clarified" its plans for the MC252 reservoir -- home of the now-plugged Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico -- after its chief operating officer Doug Suttles hinted that the company hadn't decided whether it would return to the site to produce oil. BP's vague statement offers (at first glance) zero insight into its plans -- which is exactly what the company was going for.

BP is using an age-old strategy: If you want to keep the door of opportunity open, keep the message vague. In other words, BP's future plans are exposed not by what it's saying, but by what it's not.

During a press conference in New Orleans last week, a reporter asked Suttles whether BP would consider selling the rights to either the reservoir or the well, and what would happen to any resulting profits. After Suttles seemed to indicate that BP could return to the reservoir, another reporter followed up, asking whether the company had shifted from its original plan to abandon the reservoir. Suttles responded with a "No, no, what we've always said is we're abandoning this well."

Sounds straightforward enough, right? It's important to note that while BP is officially closing the door on returning to the original wellbore, company execs have said nothing about returning to the general area. They've been purposefully non-committal about it. The company's silence on the issue is a signal that Block 252 of Mississippi Canyon in the Gulf, the site where BP drilled its Macondo well, is too promising to ignore.


Here's why.

Time is on BP's side: BP's 10-year lease with the federal government for MC252, a 3-by-3-mile block that could contain multiple reservoirs, expires in 2018. In oil and gas exploration terms, that's not too long. Still, it's enough time, barring any federal ruling that would keep BP from making future exploration, to go back and drill another well.

Reduced risk: BP has already spent considerable time mapping the area, giving it a reasonable idea of where the oil and gas reserves are located and lessening its investment risk.

Plenty of oil and gas reserves: Former CEO Tony Hayward testified June before a House subcommittee that the reservoir holds at least 50 million barrels of oil, or 2.1 billion gallons of oil. Even when you subtract the 4.9 million barrels that spewed from the damaged Macondo well, there's still plenty of oil and gas left.

The big question is whether BP can avoid the public outcry that is sure to follow any attempt to drill there. BP can't wait around forever. But the company will likely keep its plans quiet at least until its clean up and compensation activities have wrapped up. If BP does go back in, don't expect its "new" exploration well to bear any resemblance -- in name anyway -- to the original Macondo well.

Photo from BP
For complete coverage, see All Things BNET on BP's Gulf of Mexico Spill
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