Tweet
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. - Jun 24, 2010
BP Plc’s plans to develop an oil field five miles off Alaska’s coast from a manmade island must comply with safety rules for offshore drillers issued after BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the U.S. Interior Department said.
To tap the Liberty oil field in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope, BP must provide information on the possibility of a well blowout along with third-party verification that equipment used to stop spills works, according to the department.
“In light of the BP spill in the Gulf and safety reforms we are implementing, we will also be carefully evaluating the project’s proposal for oil-spill response, blowout prevention and other safety requirements,” Kendra Barkoff, a department spokeswoman, said today in an e-mail.
A moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by President Barack Obama in response to the Gulf incident requires companies working in shallow water to meet new safety requirements. Notices issued this month require that drillers submit information on preventing spills to obtain permits to proceed.
Liberty is “not covered by the moratorium,” BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said today in an e-mail. “It’s a land-based rig on a gravel island in shallow water and is not exploration.”
The project is moving forward, he said, with plans calling for the first well to be drilled in the fall.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a hearing of the Senate Energy Committee today that he has asked for a review of the Alaska project.
Reduced Impact
Committee member Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, cited a New York Times report today saying the project is exempt from the moratorium because the drilling rig will sit on a gravel island connected to land by an artificial causeway.
“That somehow makes it a quote, onshore project,” Menendez said. “BP is going to drill under the Arctic Ocean, and it will do so using a risky drilling technique.”
BP in 2005 decided to drill the Liberty field from a gravel island to reduce the potential effects of using an offshore rig, according to an exploration plan filed with the U.S. government. The move means BP must drill up to 44,000 feet horizontally using a technique called “extended reach.”
BP says five of the six planned wells will be the longest extended-reach wells in the world. The drilling rig required may be the largest land rig in the world, BP said. It will require more powerful machinery to turn the drill pipe and circulate drilling fluid.
“The extra length requires bigger and more sophisticated equipment and drilling mud to keep the hole open throughout the drilling and completion operations,” BP said an April 2007 development plan filed with the Interior Department. “The enhanced level of technology required to operate the rig systems is also a challenge.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at [email protected]
BP's Alaska Liberty Well Subject to New Offshore Safety Rules, U.S. Says - Bloomberg
BP Plc’s plans to develop an oil field five miles off Alaska’s coast from a manmade island must comply with safety rules for offshore drillers issued after BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the U.S. Interior Department said.
To tap the Liberty oil field in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope, BP must provide information on the possibility of a well blowout along with third-party verification that equipment used to stop spills works, according to the department.
“In light of the BP spill in the Gulf and safety reforms we are implementing, we will also be carefully evaluating the project’s proposal for oil-spill response, blowout prevention and other safety requirements,” Kendra Barkoff, a department spokeswoman, said today in an e-mail.
A moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by President Barack Obama in response to the Gulf incident requires companies working in shallow water to meet new safety requirements. Notices issued this month require that drillers submit information on preventing spills to obtain permits to proceed.
Liberty is “not covered by the moratorium,” BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said today in an e-mail. “It’s a land-based rig on a gravel island in shallow water and is not exploration.”
The project is moving forward, he said, with plans calling for the first well to be drilled in the fall.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a hearing of the Senate Energy Committee today that he has asked for a review of the Alaska project.
Reduced Impact
Committee member Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, cited a New York Times report today saying the project is exempt from the moratorium because the drilling rig will sit on a gravel island connected to land by an artificial causeway.
“That somehow makes it a quote, onshore project,” Menendez said. “BP is going to drill under the Arctic Ocean, and it will do so using a risky drilling technique.”
BP in 2005 decided to drill the Liberty field from a gravel island to reduce the potential effects of using an offshore rig, according to an exploration plan filed with the U.S. government. The move means BP must drill up to 44,000 feet horizontally using a technique called “extended reach.”
BP says five of the six planned wells will be the longest extended-reach wells in the world. The drilling rig required may be the largest land rig in the world, BP said. It will require more powerful machinery to turn the drill pipe and circulate drilling fluid.
“The extra length requires bigger and more sophisticated equipment and drilling mud to keep the hole open throughout the drilling and completion operations,” BP said an April 2007 development plan filed with the Interior Department. “The enhanced level of technology required to operate the rig systems is also a challenge.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at [email protected]
BP's Alaska Liberty Well Subject to New Offshore Safety Rules, U.S. Says - Bloomberg