Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter. Published:
NEW ORLEANS — A new era in oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico is opening, one that may be an improvement from the way things were done before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but also unprecedented in scale.
Within weeks or possibly days, drilling activity in the Gulf will return to pre-Macondo spill levels.
But offshore drillers are now operating in a different environment, with a tighter enforcement regime and a rapidly evolving system of spill prevention and containment to minimize the social and environmental impact of another major incident, should one occur.
The new atmosphere was evident here last week at the annual deepwater technical symposium hosted by the Society of Petroleum Engineers. The two-day session of technical papers and presentations on emerging technologies and concepts was punctuated by discussions of the new regulatory environment, announcements from top regulators of final draft rules being released, and updates on where things stood in other areas of regulation and enforcement.
The final day was topped with an overview of the new spill response systems developed over the course of two years by two nonprofits formed hastily in the wake of the Gulf spill. The message industry professionals took away was that the government is watching them closely, but that methods and technologies are now available to ensure that any future spill can be contained and its damage limited.
Last week, officials at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), the offshore energy industry’s new principal watchdog, reported to industry officials that 25 drilling rigs are now active in the waters of the U.S. Gulf. Prior to the 2010 spill and subsequent drilling moratorium, 27 rigs were actively exploring in the region, meaning offshore drilling is more or less back to its pre-spill levels.
“I think we’re back to work, I really do,” said Phillip Smith, regulatory affairs manager at Shell.
High crude oil prices, new and improved offshore drilling equipment, and major recent finds in the deepwater Gulf environment are causing a rapid rise in interest in new exploration.
Mike Prendergast, a regional Gulf of Mexico official at BSEE, said his agency has issued permits for about 30 more rigs to operate in the Gulf, and fully expects that number to grow to at least the mid-40s.
“Depending on discoveries, that number can grow even larger,” Prendergast said. “The Gulf has never seen that many rigs before working in the deepwater.”
He and others in government agencies admit that the growth in activity will make it difficult for them to keep a handle on it all. Staff additions may be necessary, he and others say, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and BSEE officials at last week’s forum pointing to higher pay and active recruitment campaigns as tools they will likely have to rely upon to encourage industry professionals to consider working for the government.
“It’s going to be a challenge to us all,” Prendergast said.
But by and large, the post-Macondo learning curve described by those dealing with the new, stricter regulatory atmosphere seems to be almost past the industry. Both regulators and the regulated say they are more comfortable and familiar with the new procedures and rules. As a consequence, wait times for permit approvals are shrinking and drillers seem more satisfied with the level of predictability they can expect in the permitting regime.
“We are understanding the process a lot better,” said Rick Fowler, vice president of deepwater projects at the small, privately held operator LLOG Exploration.
Preparing for disaster
Government officials also say they are more confident in the industry’s ability to head off another spill, thanks to an increased emphasis on safety and prevention, but also due to the efforts by the Helix Well Containment Group (HWCG) and the Marine Well Containment Co. (MWCC), two of the offspring of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Last month, MWCC completed the first real-world simulation of a loss of well control and oil spill in the deepwater Gulf environment. The drill, as described by its participants, included everything but an actual rig collapse and release of oil.
The simulation, a mock-up of a Macondo-like blowout at the Walker Ridge 536 offshore site, culminated in the installation of a sophisticated new capping stack on top of a well head lying almost 7,000 feet beneath the surface some 200 miles south of Louisiana.
Martin Massey, CEO at MWCC, took an audience of petroleum engineers through a step-by-step explanation of how the simulation proceeded, to give them a sense of what would happen should one of their companies need MWCC’s equipment.
Working with Shell, Massey said, it took his organization about seven days to move the capping stack from its warehouse to the “spill” site. MWCC then swiftly handed off the stack and other subsea well intervention equipment to Shell, where it worked with contractors to fix it atop the well head and stop the fake leak. A pressure test at 10,800 pounds per square inch (psi) confirmed that the technology works, he said.
“Our system is available to all operators in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico,” Massey assured his industry peers. “If you are not a member, you can still access our system as a nonmember on a per-well basis, by working with us and putting an agreement in place for that particular well.”
Both MWCC and HWCG say their systems can stop leaks at 10,000 feet below the surface, with capping stacks capable of withstanding 15,000 psi of pressure. MWCC says it also stores 200,000 gallons of subsea dispersant.
David Coatney, CEO of HWCG, says his group’s system can manage 55,000 barrels oil per day of flowback in cases where spilling oil can be captured and collected from the well head. He said HWCG is now moving to build and deploy more capping stacks to be made available in other major offshore energy centers outside the United States.
“Actually, four that will be strategically located in oil provinces around the globe,” Coatney said. “But certainly necessary for that, in addition to the equipment, will follow processes, procedures, integration, response protocols, etc.”
Coping with change in liability
Aside from new government agencies, new rules and new spill response equipment, the industry also must contend with a new attitude from government that it hasn’t had to face in most of its offshore drilling past.
Chiefly, regulators will no longer hold the leaseholder or principal offshore operator solely liable for any major accidents or spills that may occur.
BSEE Director James Watson made that point crystal clear in comments he made after his keynote address to the Society of Petroleum Engineers conference on its first day. Though citations for incidents of noncompliance — a government determination that rules were willfully ignored or violated — have traditionally been issued only to the main operator of an offshore project in the past, BSEE’s new policy will be to hold contractors and subcontractors responsible in cases where it thinks such a reprimand is appropriate, he said.
“I’ve looked closely at some of the investigations that have been done, in some cases people were killed or some serious environmental damage occurred, and the investigations clearly show that there was a contractor that had direct control over the circumstances that led to these incidents,” Watson explained in defending the new, harsher approach.
“You’ve got a serious incident, you’ve got a contractor that’s really obviously in a position to have not allowed this to occur, and that really there’s been an expectation by the people out there that a supervisor from that contractor was going to manage the situation and they didn’t, and there was no other primary reason for this incident to occur,” Watson explained further. “I have to say that the policy is the right policy, to identify that as an incident of noncompliance and take a look at what corrective actions are necessary to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Equipment, labor concerns — and lawsuits
The industry seems to be more or less coming to terms with the new attitude, as it is with the new permitting and approvals process in general. Still, some head winds to further expanded drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico remain.
The threat of lawsuits from environmentalists remains, as seen in Alaska, where Shell is preparing to begin drilling once sea ice clears from the site.
And though the industry always anxiously watches the price of oil, which could make or break the economic incentives to drill, companies nowadays express more concern over securing the skilled labor they will need to expand their operations in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico environment.
Rig owners and operators are enjoying robust demand for the rigs and drill ships being called into service. But some of those companies are reporting struggling profit margins, citing high labor costs as one factor eating into their revenues.
Some also worry over whether the number of rigs they are planning to use to drill in the Gulf will be available. Rigs are being called to other emerging offshore energy regions of the world, in places such as the west and east coastlines of Africa, offshore Brazil, and the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. Drilling in the Arctic is also expected to pick up should Shell, Statoil and some other high-latitude operators report success.
Well control and containment companies also say they need to improve upon what they have done already to increase confidence in their capabilities. Massey admitted that the recent MWCC drill occurred in perfect weather. Its system may prove less easy to deploy in rougher seas.
But development of more robust well intervention technologies is expected to parallel the rapid advancement in offshore drilling technology itself. Both nonprofit spill response companies say they’re looking into developing tougher capping stacks that can handle up to 20,000 psi of pressure, and narrower capping equipment that can squeeze into situations where sunken debris makes intervention more difficult.
Spill response drills will likely continue to expose areas for improvement. And the agencies are continually looking at new and better ways to manage the expanding activity in the Gulf of Mexico, including possibly requiring firms to begin tracking cases of narrowly avoided accidents instead of just incidents or injuries that do occur.
“As we push into the deepwater, these wells will become more complex, more challenging, and some of the technology we’re still working on,” said Smith at Shell. “And finally, there is some uncertainty still regarding some upcoming regulations.
“We’ll hopefully continue to work through those and continue to have the progress that we’ve seen in the past two years.”
I do believe all the ideas you have introduced to your post. They’re really convincing and can certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for novices. May just you please prolong them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
Hi there would you mind letting me know which web host you’re using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you recommend a good web hosting provider at a reasonable price? Thanks a lot, I appreciate it!
hey there and thanks on your information ?I have definitely picked up anything new from proper here. I did alternatively expertise some technical issues the use of this site, as I skilled to reload the site a lot of instances previous to I could get it to load correctly. I were considering in case your hosting is OK? No longer that I am complaining, but sluggish loading cases occasions will sometimes affect your placement in google and can harm your quality score if ads and ***********|advertising|advertising|advertising and *********** with Adwords. Well I抦 adding this RSS to my email and can look out for much extra of your respective fascinating content. Ensure that you replace this again very soon..
There is evidently a bundle to know about this. I feel you made certain good points in features also.
Hi, Neat post. There is a problem together with your site in internet explorer, may test this?IE still is the marketplace chief and a huge element of folks will leave out your magnificent writing due to this problem.
Boomerang Casino Bonus ohne Einzahlung
Das Boomerang Casino bietet seinen Spielern eine Vielzahl von spannenden Boni und
Promotionen, darunter auch den begehrten Bonus ohne Einzahlung.
Dabei können Spieler ohne eigenes Geld einzahlen zu müssen, kostenlose Gewinne erzielen –
eine perfekte Gelegenheit, um das Casino risikofrei
kennenzulernen.
Der Boomerang Casino Bonus ohne Einzahlung ist eine großartige Möglichkeit,
um neue Spiele auszuprobieren und das Casino zu erkunden, ohne dabei eigenes Geld riskieren zu müssen. Oftmals erhalten Spieler nach der Registrierung
einen bestimmten Betrag an Bonusgeld, den sie im Casino verwenden können. Auch
Freispiele für bestimmte Slots können Teil des
Bonus ohne Einzahlung sein.
Um den Boomerang Casino Bonus ohne Einzahlung zu erhalten, müssen Spieler sich lediglich auf der Webseite des Casinos registrieren und gegebenenfalls einen Bonuscode eingeben. Anschließend steht das Bonusguthaben zur Verfügung und kann sofort
genutzt werden.
Es ist jedoch wichtig zu beachten, dass der Bonus ohne Einzahlung meist an bestimmte Umsatzbedingungen geknüpft ist, die erfüllt werden müssen,
bevor Gewinne ausgezahlt werden können. Diese Bedingungen variieren von Casino zu Casino und sollten vor der
Nutzung des Bonus genau geprüft werden.
Insgesamt bietet der Boomerang Casino Bonus ohne Einzahlung eine tolle Möglichkeit, um das Casino und seine Spiele zu erkunden, ohne dabei eigenes Geld riskieren zu müssen. Mit etwas Glück können Spieler
so kostenlose Gewinne erzielen und ein unvergessliches Spielerlebnis genießen.
Geben Sie dem Boomerang Casino Bonus ohne Einzahlung eine Chance und erleben Sie spannende Casinospiele ohne Risiko!
Here is my blog; <a href="[Link deleted]
Hello! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest writing a blog article or vice-versa? My site covers a lot of the same topics as yours and I feel we could greatly benefit from each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you! Great blog by the way!
It’s best to participate in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will advocate this website!
I’m very happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the accidental misinformation that’s at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this best doc.
Hello, i think that i saw you visited my blog thus i came to 搑eturn the favor?I am trying to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
I am often to running a blog and i really respect your content. The article has really peaks my interest. I’m going to bookmark your website and hold checking for brand spanking new information.
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feed-back would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for the good writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it. Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we communicate?
Hey baybay
Tipico ist ein Anbieter von Online-Glücksspielen, der auch
ein Casino betreibt. Der Tipico Casino Willkommensbonus ist ein attraktives Angebot für neue Spieler, die sich auf der Plattform anmelden. In diesem Artikel erklären wir, wie der Willkommensbonus funktioniert
und welche Bedingungen damit verbunden sind.
Der Tipico Casino Willkommensbonus besteht aus einem 100% Einzahlungsbonus von bis zu 200€.
Das bedeutet, dass wenn ein neuer Spieler eine erste Einzahlung
von beispielsweise 100€ tätigt, erhält er weitere 100€ als
Bonusguthaben gutgeschrieben. Insgesamt hat der Spieler dann 200€ zur
Verfügung, um die verschiedenen Casino-Spiele auszuprobieren.
Um den Willkommensbonus zu erhalten, muss der Spieler sich zunächst auf der Tipico-Plattform registrieren und eine erste Einzahlung tätigen. Der Bonus wird automatisch gutgeschrieben,
sobald die Einzahlung abgeschlossen ist. Es ist wichtig zu beachten, dass der Bonus an bestimmte Bedingungen geknüpft ist, die erfüllt werden müssen, bevor das Bonusguthaben ausgezahlt werden kann.
Zu diesen Bedingungen gehört in der Regel ein sogenannter Umsatzfaktor,
der angibt, wie oft der Bonusbetrag im Casino umgesetzt werden muss, bevor er ausgezahlt werden kann.
Bei Tipico liegt dieser Umsatzfaktor in der Regel bei 35x,
was bedeutet, dass der Bonusbetrag 35 Mal umgesetzt werden muss, bevor
eine Auszahlung möglich ist.
Darüber hinaus gelten für den Willkommensbonus in der
Regel auch bestimmte Umsatzanforderungen, die angeben, welchen Anteil der Einsätze bei den verschiedenen Casino-Spielen auf die Erfüllung der Umsatzbedingungen angerechnet werden. Es ist daher wichtig,
sich vorab über diese Bedingungen zu informieren, um sicherzustellen, dass der Bonus
effizient genutzt werden kann.
Insgesamt bietet der Tipico Casino Willkommensbonus neuen Spielern eine attraktive Möglichkeit, das Casino-Angebot des Anbieters kennenzulernen und erste Gewinne zu erzielen. Durch das Erfüllen der
Umsatzbedingungen können Spieler das Bonusguthaben in Echtgeld umwandeln und
sich den Betrag auszahlen lassen.
Here is my website … <a href="[Link deleted]
This design is incredible! You certainly know how to keep a reader amused. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!
I have observed that online diploma is getting popular because obtaining your degree online has developed into a popular method for many people. A large number of people have certainly not had a chance to attend a conventional college or university but seek the raised earning potential and a better job that a Bachelor Degree provides. Still some others might have a degree in one course but would wish to pursue one thing they already have an interest in.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. The first thing is that college students have an option between government student loan as well as a private education loan where it really is easier to choose student loan consolidating debts than with the federal student loan.
Hi there, I found your website by the use of Google whilst looking for a related topic, your web site came up, it appears to be like great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I抣l be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again very soon!
There are actually a number of particulars like that to take into consideration. That may be a nice point to deliver up. I provide the ideas above as normal inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you convey up where crucial factor shall be working in trustworthy good faith. I don?t know if greatest practices have emerged round things like that, however I’m positive that your job is clearly recognized as a fair game. Each girls and boys really feel the influence of just a moment抯 pleasure, for the remainder of their lives.
Can I simply say what a aid to seek out someone who actually is aware of what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know methods to deliver an issue to light and make it important. More individuals must learn this and perceive this facet of the story. I cant believe youre no more common since you undoubtedly have the gift.
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I will definitely comeback.
Hey! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having trouble finding one? Thanks a lot!
As a Newbie, I am always browsing online for articles that can benefit me. Thank you
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I know it was my option to learn, but I really thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about something that you can repair when you werent too busy on the lookout for attention.
Where or what would I have to do? And what’s the cost?.
I was just searching for this information for some time. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your website. I wonder what is the lack of Google strategy that don’t rank this type of informative web sites in top of the list. Normally the top websites are full of garbage.