GAO: More Action Needed to Secure Maritime Energy Supply

- GAO: More Action Needed to Secure Maritime Energy Supply

Friday, August 26, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Karen Boman

The Coast Guard and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have made progress implementing prior recommendations made by the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) to enhance energy tanker security, but further action is needed to secure maritime energy supply, GAO said in an Aug. 24 report.

GAO in 2007 made five recommendations to ensure effective response by federal agencies to protect tankers and implement response plans. Two recommendations have been implemented, including the development of protocols by the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to facilitate the recovery and resumption of trade following a disruption to the maritime transportation system. The Coast and the FBI have participated in local port exercises that executed multiple response plans simultaneously.

The Coast Guard also has made progress on a third recommendation through work on a national strategy for the security of certain dangerous cargoes. The Coast Guard plans to develop a resource allocation plan, starting in April 2012, which may help address the need to balance security responsibilities.

"However, the Coast Guard and the FBI have not yet taken action on a fourth recommendation to develop an operational plan to integrate the national spill and terrorism response plans," GAO reported.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to revise the National Response Framework, but no decision has been made regarding whether the separate response plans will be integrated. DHS also has not yet taken action on the final recommendation to develop explicit performance measures for emergency response capabilities and use them in risk-based analyses to set priorities for acquiring needed response resources. According to DHS, it is revising its emergency response grant programs, but does not have specific plans to develop performance measures as part of this effort.

While the Coast Guard has taken steps to assess the security risks to offshore infrastructure, including Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) facilities and deepwater ports, the agency faces complex and technical challenges in assessing risks. The Coast Guard has used its Maritime Security Risk Analysis Model (MSRAM) to examine security risks to offshore facilities, but does not have the data on the ability of an OCS facility to withstand an attack.

GAO has determined that as of May 2011, the Coast Guard had not assessed security risks for 12 of the 50 security-regulated OCS facilities that are to be subjected to such assessments. Coast Guard officials later added these facilities to MSRAM for assessment and have completed the required assessments. However, current Coast Guard policies and procedures do not call for Coast Guard officials to provide an annual updated list for regulated OCS facilities to MSRAM analysts.

"Given the continuing threat to such offshore facilities, revising its procedures could help ensure that the Coast Guard carries out its risk assessment requirements for security-regulated OCS facilities," GAO said.

Stephen L. Caldwell, director on Homeland Security and Justice Issues, testified before the House of Representatives in Houston on Aug. 24 that Al-Qa'ida and other groups with malevolent intent continue to target energy tankers and offshore energy infrastructure because of their important to the nation's economy and national security.

In May of this year, DHS reported that intelligence information showed that; throughout 2010, there was continuing interests by members of al-Qa'ida in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea. "While a terrorist attack on energy tankers or offshore energy infrastructure has not occurred in the United States, other countries have experienced such attacks."

While the Deepwater Horizon incident in April 2010 was not the result of an attack, it showed that the "consequences of an incident on offshore energy infrastructure could be significant."

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EDITORIAL: W.Va. Should Welcome Marcellus Shale Action

- EDITORIAL: W.Va. Should Welcome Marcellus Shale Action

Thursday, July 28, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

The Wall Street Journal wrote tellingly Tuesday of the differences between two other Marcellus shale states, Pennsylvania and New York, which it called "a case study in one state embracing economic opportunity, while the other has let environmental politics trump development."

In short, Pennsylvania "set up a regulatory framework to encourage and monitor natural gas drilling. In New York state, green activists "raised fears about the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing and convinced politicians to enact what is effectively a moratorium."

West Virginians should be aware of the economic results of such decisions.

In Pennsylvania, more than 2,000 wells have been drilled since 2008, and gas production rose from

5 billion cubic feet in 2007 to 81 bcf in 2009.

According to a study by University of Wyoming professor Timothy Considine for the Manhattan Institute, the economic benefits of a typical Marcellus well include:

• 62 jobs
• $2.8 million in direct economic benefits from gas company purchases, $1.2 million in indirect benefits from companies in the supply chain, $1.5 million from workers spending wages or landowners spending royalty payments, and
• $2 million in federal, state and local taxes.

Pennsylvania's Department of Labor and Industry reports that Marcellus drilling:

• Has created 72,000 jobs,
• That the average wage is about $73,000, and
• That 857 oil and gas companies paid $238 million in taxes in the first quarter of this year -- $20 million more than the total for 2010.

"And all of this with no evidence of significant environmental harm," the Journal said.

"Then there's New York."

Indeed. People in Broome County, N.Y., can look across their border with Pennsylvania and see the benefits they are not getting because of economically suicidal state policy.

West Virginians love their lush green state, and their concerns about its environment are understandable.

But given Pennsylvania's experience -- no evidence of significant environmental harm -- state residents should weigh the alarmists' warnings carefully.

West Virginians do not love being 49th in per capita income, and they have a chance to change that.

Copyright (c) 2011, Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va.

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Bills Requiring US Action on Oil Leases, Permits Gain Support

Bills Requiring US Action on Oil Leases, Permits Gain Support

Friday, April 01, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires

by  Ryan Tracy

A proposal to require the Obama administration to sell offshore oil leases and act on drilling permits within a set time frame gained more supporters Thursday, with Senate Republicans introducing legislation to do so a day after House Republicans backed the idea.

The bills announced by Senate Republicans also took a far broader approach than the House proposals and included a grab bag of initiatives. The Senate bills would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for drilling and direct royalty monies on those lands to "renewable energy development," according to a summary of the legislation distributed by the office of Sen. David Vitter (R., La.).

They would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to reissue a permit to a much-debated coal mine project operated by Arch Coal Inc. (ACI) in West Virginia, direct the State Department to issue permits for TransCanada Corp.'s (TRP) proposed pipeline connecting producers extracting oil from sands in Alberta, Canada, to the central U.S., and prevent the administration from considering greenhouse gases linked to climate change if the administration moves to protect endangered fish or wildlife.

The set of bills announced Thursday by Vitter, John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), and 26 other senators would also require the administration to conduct lease sales in the outer continental shelf, including in the Gulf of Mexico and Virginia.

The bills would require the Interior Department, which oversees offshore oil and gas drilling, to act on permits within 40 days, including a 10-day period for the applicant to respond to possible problems. The House Republicans' bill would require action within 60 days, depending on the application.

The bills have support from many Republicans, but at least one has expressed concern that they outline too rigid a framework.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, (R., Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, which oversees the Interior Department, told reporters Wednesday that she had "reservations" about rigid timetables for permitting and leasing.

"I think it's important to understand that not all permits may be equal and all leases are not equal," Murkowski said, explaining that permits and leases in less explored areas in Alaska might take longer than permits in "well-established" areas in the Gulf.
"If what we are doing is putting in place a more efficient permitting process, I'm all over it, but I think you need to give yourself a little bit of leeway in the event that it's not a 'one size fits all' type of approach," Murkowski said.