Salazar Tours Rigs in Gulf, Keeps Drill Ban

(AP)  The helicopter passes over the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico - with surprisingly little oil visible on its surface - when out of the sea rises a skyscraper-like structure nearly 350 feet above the waves. The $600 million rig, nearly 100 miles off Louisiana's coast, has a hull larger than a football field and can drill more than five miles beneath the ocean floor.

But the gleaming new rig sits idle, shut down by the government's freeze on drilling at 33 ocean wells.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visited the colossal structure this past week while on a tour of three offshore oil rigs. It was his most extensive tour since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig led to one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history and the unprecedented shutdown of offshore drilling.

Salazar told The Associated Press, which accompanied him on the trip, that he's gathering information to decide whether to revise or even lift the ban, which is scheduled to last until Nov. 30.

Special Section: Gulf Coast Oil Disaster

Business groups and Gulf Coast political leaders say the shutdown is crippling the oil and gas industry and costing thousands of jobs, even aboard rigs not operated by BP PLC, which is responsible for the Gulf disaster. The freeze "is like punishing the whole class" when a student does something wrong, oil executive John Breed told Salazar during a tour of the Noble Danny Adkins, one of the rigs Salazar visited Wednesday.

Salazar told the AP he believes the industry-wide moratorium imposed after BP's Gulf oil spill was the correct call.

"I think we're in the right direction," he said, adding that the ultimate goal is to allow deepwater operations to resume safely. "We're not there yet," he said.

"I've got a lot of questions about drilling safety," Salazar said. "I learned a lot about the different kinds of rigs out there - the different limitations in terms of (water) depth and equipment and the different zones of risk. It's a complex question."

Texas-based Noble Drilling Services Inc., which owns the idle rig, said the company and rig operator Shell have top-notch safety records, unlike BP. Congressional investigators revealed last month that BP had 760 safety violations in the past five years, while no other major oil company had more than eight.

Salazar acknowledged that the freeze was causing hardship, but he said his job was to protect the public and the environment even as he supports domestic energy production.

"We're here because we take what you're doing very seriously, and we will do the right thing" he told oil executives at his first stop, a deepwater production rig run by Arkansas-based Murphy Exploration & Production Co.

The Front Runner rig, owned by Houston-based Nabors Offshore Corp., operates in 3,300 feet of water 92 miles off the Louisiana coast.

At a briefing with Salazar, executives made an impassioned plea, citing the rig's safety record. The Front Runner has been producing oil since December 2004 with no major incidents, said Nabors president Jerry Shanklin and David Harris, Murphy's general manager of worldwide drilling.

One reason: The rig's blowout preventer - the device that failed spectacularly in the Deepwater Horizon explosion - is above the surface, accessible to workers and easier to inspect and repair. The blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon- the safety device of last-resort - was on the sea-floor, a mile below the surface, a common practice on exploratory wells.

While production continues on the Front Runner, two wells the company had been digging have been suspended because of the moratorium. Resuming operations on the wells could double the rig's production with little safety risk because the wells are being drilled into producing reservoirs where important geological information is already known, Harris said.

Harris asked Salazar to lift the moratorium for rigs such as his, which have blowout preventers on the surface.

"So you can guarantee me there will be no blowouts?" Salazar countered. "We are not going to have another oil spill like the one we are still dealing with out here at the Macondo well" operated by BP.

Harris and other officials stressed the redundancies built into the rig's design - a series of backup systems meant to ensure the blowout preventer works in case of disaster. Yet pressed by Salazar, James Hunter, Murphy's general manager for field development and facilities engineering, finally conceded that, no, he could not make such a guarantee. Salazar beamed.

At the next site, the Noble Danny Adkins, Salazar was more like a talk-show host, asking rig officials dozens of questions.

"Tell us a story," he said at one point.

A flat-screen TV in the rig's galley shows a continuous loop of family photos submitted by the crew - a reminder of why safety is so important, said Breed, the Noble spokesman. A crew of 156 remains on the rig, although their work is limited to maintenance and preparations, since the moratorium prevents them from drilling.

David Loeb, Shell's top manager of floating operations in the Gulf, told Salazar his commitment to safety is personal. "I've got a family. I like the beach. I like to fish," he said. "I'll be danged if I do anything to mess that up."
By Associated Press Writer Matthew Daly

[jimmyc1955]

The deep sea drilling ban is part of a long term strategy to create a market for "alternative" energy sources. Since alternative fuels and energy are highly inefficient, ineffective, unreliable and costly, the price of petroleum products must rise drastically to make "alternative" fuels competitive.

This ban is intended to create the rise in costs. I have heard two rigs have already been pulled out of the gulf and shipped overseas. As oil production in the gulf falls, foreign nations will control out energy flow directly. Do we really want the Saudi's determining our economic future?? We as a nation can not be competitive if our energy costs are noticeably higher and far less reliable.

[sjc_1]

All the BOPs should be in working order. The problem is no crew boss would ever give the word to use one. It would shut down the well and they would all be fired.

[msimamaji]

How many more oil spills can this country afford?
I just got a newsletter from OriginOil, which has made a sale in Australia. OriginOil is developing fuel from algae. Thanks a grant from the stimulus program, they can cut the extraction costs down by about 90%. I've also checked out similar reports from AlgaeVenture Systems. The latest issue of Der Spiegel featured an article about an airplane that runs on algae-based fuel. According to this article, algae-based fuel is more efficient than fossil-based fuel.
If I were an executive of an algae company, states like Louisiana would be good bets for locating algae production facilities. Louisiana certainly has more water than California where OriginOil is based. There are constructive alternatives to fossil fuel, but we need not be willing to change.
And that's the biggest problem with the Gulf region. They're addicted to "drill, baby drill" which inevitably leads to "spill,baby spill" and "die, baby die."

[stormerF3]

Salazar,Has no knowledege of oil rigs what a waste of money,Why not send a engineer who knows oil rigs,is Salazar just going to approve those with the Mexican Flag flying over them. Funny how is he going to check out those owned by Premex,(mexico)?

[us_1776]

You need to have blowout preventers both on the seafloor and on the surface. And that should be mandated for every rig drilling in over 500 feet of water.

There has to be a 100% guarantee that a deepsea well cannot go out of control. And a double set of blowout preventers is probably the easiest way to accomplish that.




.

[jimmyc1955]

there are only 2 thing that are 100% certain - death and taxes. Insisting on 100% reliability is naive at best and certain to drive oil prices in American through the roof. But that is probably part of the plan.

[vsmit]

I take it you don't drive a car (no 100% guarantee of safety).
You don't fly in airplanes (they do crash).
Don't use electricity (no 100% guarantee the power plant won't blow up)

There will always be accidents around us. We learn from them and move on. We don't ground all airplanes if there is a crash, park all cars if there is a mechanical failure, shut down all power plants if there is an explosion.

Obama and his crew don't have any idea of how the real world works.