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 Why Is Offshore Drilling So Dangerous?
http://www.livescience.com/32614-why-is-offshore-drilling-so-dangerous-.html

by Remy Melina | May 28, 2010 03:06pm ET

Offshore Platform Holly, South Ellwood Field, CA.

Credit: doe.gov
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The Gulf of Mexico oil leak has fired up arguments against offshore drilling. After decades of
heated debate, this incident shed light on its dangers and impact on the environment.

Offshore drilling, the process of extracting oil and gas resources from underwater locations,
including lakes, has been conducted at increasingly deeper and farther off shore sites in recent
years, as shallow fossil fuel reserves and near-shore drilling locations have become exhausted.

But with deeper drilling depths comes increased danger including higher risks of accidents,
spills and fires, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
"Big Oil has perpetuated a dangerous myth that coastline drilling is a completely safe endeavor,
but accidents like this are a sober reminder just how far that is from the truth," said Democratic
Senator Robert Menendez in a press statement. "The fact is that 509 oil rig fires have broken
out in the Gulf of Mexico since 2006."

Why is it so dangerous?

One reason for this increased danger is the complex equipment needed to drill at such depths.
As offshore drilling continues to be pushed to new depths, with oil companies continuously
drilling in deeper waters and penetrating further underground, the technology needed to achieve
these feats is extremely complex and not entirely invincible.

This is a pretty frigging complex system, said Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the
University of California, Berkeley, in an interview with Yale Environment 360, a publication
of Yale University. You've got equipment and steel strung out over a long piece of geography
starting at surface and terminating at 18,000 feet below the sea floor. So it has many potential
weak points. Just as Katrina's storm surge found weaknesses in those piles of dirt the levees
gas likes to find weakness in anything we connect to that source.

Another reason for the danger is the harsh offshore environments that pose engineering
challenges to offshore drilling equipment. Severe weather, ice and storms pose risks to the
functionality of the rigs, and their distance from land make it harder for additional rescue
personnel to promptly reach the areas in emergency situations.

The inexperience of oil companies at operating at these depths is a third issue.

BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles acknowledged that many of his company's efforts to
stop the oil leak failed because they had never had to plug a well at such depths and were
therefore unprepared for the conditions that foiled their attempts including ice formation inside
of the original containment dome due to freezing deep water temperatures.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig had drilled the world's deepest offshore well before it exploded
and sank on April 20, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Deepwater
Horizon drilled the well to 35,055 feet (10 kilometers) or more than six miles, operating in
4,130 feet (1 kilometer) of water, according to BP.

The first rig to attempt such depths, the well's pipes had been cemented for only 20 hours before
the rig went up in flames, according to oil services contractor Halliburton Inc.

"The bottom line is that when you drill for oil, there is always a risk that not only puts lives on
the line, but a risk that puts miles of coastline and the economy on the line as well," Menendez
said.

Drilling plans and drilling bans

In the beginning of May, Chevron Canada started drilling what could now become the world's
deepest offshore oil well, and planned to reach a depth of one kilometer deeper than the well
drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig. However, the drilling project was put on hold by
Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board until the company can provide evidence that it has
taken sufficient preventative measures against oil spills.
On March 31, President Obama had announced the end of a decades-old ban on oil and gas
drilling along much of the U.S. Atlantic coast and in northern Alaska. The lifted ban was aimed
at increasing the United States' energy independence and reducing foreign imports so that it
would not need to rely so heavily on other countries for energy supplies. The U.S. Atlantic
coast could hold as much as 37 trillion cubic feet of gas and 4 billion barrels of oil, the U.S.
Geological Survey estimates.

But less than a month later, the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig sank about 50 miles (80
kilometers) southeast of Venice, Louisiana.

President Obama recently announced during his weekly address that no permits for drilling
new deepwater wells will be issued until a 30-day safety and environmental review of all
deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico has been completed. Representing 30 percent of
our oil production, the Gulf of Mexico plays an important role in the future of the country's
energy production, said Obama.

"But we can only pursue offshore oil drilling if we have assurances that a disaster like the BP
oil spill will not happen again," Obama added.

White House officials said that Obama is considering extending the hold on permits for six
more months and may delay or cancel specific drilling projects off the coasts of Alaska and
Virginia and in the western Gulf of Mexico, according to the New York Times.

Part of what is happening in the Gulf is that oil companies are drilling a mile under water before
they hit ground, and a mile below that before they hit oil, Obama said. With the increased risks,
the increased costs, it gives you a sense of where we're going."
 Repsol Drilling Delay Adds to Oil Patch
Chill in Alaska
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/141098/Repsol_Drilling_Delay_Adds_to_Oil_Patch
_Chill_in_Alaska#sthash.PnzPLdj3.dpuf

by Bloomberg I Dan Murtaugh I Wednesday, October 14, 2015

(Bloomberg) -- A restructuring of Repsol SAs Alaska drilling project is adding to the states
woes in the midst of the biggest oil slump since 2009.

Repsol sold stakes in development and exploratory acreage in northern Alaska to its partner,
Armstrong Oil & Gas Inc., for more than $800 million, according to a statement from
Armstrong. The companies will defer the 2015-2016 drilling campaign initially scheduled to
start this winter as part of the restructuring.

As many as 500 jobs on the states North Shore are in limbo in the restructuring, according to
Anchorage, Alaska-based KTUU television station, citing comments from Jan Sieving, a
spokeswoman for Repsol .

These are positions that havent yet been filled for the deferred drilling campaign, Sieving said
Wednesday in an e-mail.

The restructuring comes a month after ConocoPhillips announced it would cut about 10 percent
of its workforce, including 120 jobs in Alaska.

The state has been hit hard by crude prices falling more than 50 percent from last years peak
amid a global glut. Petroleum revenue in the 2014 fiscal year was $4.8 billion and accounted
for 88 percent of the governments unrestricted funds. Thats expected to fall to $1.7 billion
this fiscal year. The government had a partial shutdown for 12 days in June related to budget
shortfalls.

Representatives of Armstrong didnt immediately return calls and e-mails for comment
Tuesday.

Once all options are executed in the deal, Repsols stake in the Colville River Delta area will
shrink to 49 percent from 70 percent, and in another 750,000 acres of development land to 25
percent from 70 percent, with Armstrong taking 51 percent and 75 percent, respectively.