Offshore Officials Get In-Depth Look

Offshore Officials Get In-Depth Look

Thursday, April 14, 2011
Houston Chronicle
by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

The top U.S. officials in charge of offshore oil and gas exploration on Wednesday got a close-up look at the first deep-water drilling project approved since last year's oil spill.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and his chief offshore regulator, Michael Bromwich, spent two hours examining new safety systems -- including one spurred by the spill -- on the Ensco 8501 rig that is about to begin drilling a bypass well for Noble Energy in the Gulf of Mexico.

They touched drilling fluids hauled from pits on the semisubmersible rig, interviewed workers about their jobs and studied the systems used as a last line of defense against surging oil and gas.

Afterward, Salazar said he was impressed that "testing capabilities have been significantly enhanced since a year ago."

"We're starting to see the beginning of a significant change in the culture that holds great promise," Salazar added.

Within days, the Ensco 8501 is set to begin drilling the well in Noble Energy's Santiago prospect 70 miles southeast of Venice, La., resuming work that started just four days before the blowout of BP's Macondo well and destruction of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last April 20.

Houston-based Noble drilled more than 7,000 feet below the seafloor in 6,500 feet of water before it was forced to plug the well under a moratorium on deep-water drilling that took effect weeks after the Macondo blowout.

The new bypass drilling is meant to get around the plugs in the original well.

Although Noble Energy is the operator of the project, with a 23.25 percent working interest, BP owns 46.5 percent of it. The other partners in the project are Red Willow Offshore and Houston Energy Deepwater Ventures.

Noble Energy secured its permit to resume work at the site on Feb. 28, becoming the first of 10 deep-water projects blocked by last year's ban that now have gotten the green light. So far, drilling has begun on just one: a well in Shell Oil's Cardamom Deep discovery 137 miles off the Louisiana coast.

One hundred twenty-three people now are working at the Noble Energy well, including 78 who work for Ensco and others employed by about a half-dozen other contractors.

Workers on the rig -- built as a collaboration between Ensco and Noble two and a half years ago -- stressed the safety practices onboard. At one point, an Ensco worker reminded Salazar and Bromwich to don protective glasses and earplugs.

 

Blowout preventer

Inside the drilling shack at the heart of the rig, the two officials pressed workers to answer questions about the blowout preventer designed as a final barrier against loss of well control. A four-month examination of the blowout preventer used at BP's well concluded it was unable to slash through off-center drill pipe, seal the well hole and trap oil underground.

Although blowout preventers are built to shear through drill pipe, they can't cut through thick joints connecting pipe. That means drillers must know whether narrow pipe or joints are passing through the device.

 

'Give me comfort?'

Salazar wanted to know what would ensure that pipe joints weren't in the way.

"What will give me comfort that in this rig, that will not happen?" he asked.

Don Williamson, the rig manager, stressed that the driller always knows the position of the pipe.

The Hydril blowout preventer being used at the Noble Energy well is two and a half years old -- the same age as the rig itself.

After last year's spill, the government stepped up testing requirements for blowout preventers, including access points called hot stab panels that allow remote controlled vehicles to operate equipment deep beneath the surface.

On the Ensco 8501, that meant installing new equipment from Oceaneering that allows the workers on the surface to conduct quicker, more efficient tests of the hot stab function.

"It's greatly enhanced our ability to test the stabs on the surface," said Rusty Critselous, a drill site leader for Noble Energy. "With this little unit, our hot stab lines are shorter and the testing process is quicker."

 

'New and better ways'

Bob Bemis, Noble Energy's vice president of environmental, health and safety, said the federal mandate prompted the change.

"That regulation is causing us to develop new and better ways to develop these testing techniques," Bemis said.

Bromwich, director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, observed later that it was gratifying that the federal requirements had spurred innovation, but said he would prefer the industry to have its own incentives for safety improvements.

"What's been missing from the industry over the last several decades has been the drive to innovate for safety without new requirements," Bromwich said.

The backdrop for the visit Wednesday was continuing tension between the oil industry and the Obama administration.

Oil industry representatives have complained that the administration is moving too slowly to restart offshore drilling following last year's spill.