Deepwater Horizon – Two Years Later

 By Jay Andrew, Vice President

It’s been two years since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, gushing almost 5 billion barrels of oil before it was capped on July 15, 2010. The oil & gas industry was changed forever, beginning with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s signed order swiftly dismantling the Minerals Management Service, the embattled federal agency in charge of policing offshore drilling, and divvying it up into three agencies now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

Many other changes also began to sweep the industry including the Obama administration’s offshore drilling moratorium which was famously blocked by a federal judge in New Orleans, but ultimately saw the issue of a new order from Secretary Salazar to uphold suspensions of deepwater drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf while investigators continued to examine the catastrophe.

CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS 
Amidst the fallout, the industry began to galvanize and take matters into its own hands not only to get people back to work, but to show the world its serious commitment to safety and readiness in the event of another well control incident in the Gulf of Mexico. Two organizations formed quickly and have become requisite and highly visible parts of drilling programs in the Gulf of Mexico. Since their inception, both organizations, the Marine Well Containment Company and the Helix Well Containment Group, have developed robust containment capabilities by working closely with operators, regulators, oil field service providers and other mutual aid companies. These groups have also conducted readiness response drills designed to test their systems and maintain operational rigor. Even BP is now in the containment game with the recent introduction of its new capping system designed not only for the Gulf of Mexico, but other parts of the world, including Angola and the North Sea.

LOOKING AHEAD
With new governing bodies, enhanced containment protocols and continued commitments to safety and the environment, the industry continues to demonstrate its trademark resiliency and technical expertise. At the opening of the 2012 Offshore Technology Conference last week in Houston, discussions to drill into the seafloor more than 12,000 feet beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean impressed even the most technically-savvy industry professionals. The project, scheduled for 2017, will involve drilling a scientific well to retrieve a core of the Earth’s mantle. If it succeeds, it will be capable of drilling in water depths of 12,000 to 14,000 feet, well beyond the current deepest drilling depths, which are around 10,000 feet. These advancements could be a game-changer for the offshore industry as it looks to conquer yet another deepwater frontier.