http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/blames+poor+management+spill/5400865/story.html

BY REUTERS SEPTEMBER 14, 2011 9:04 AM

WASHINGTON – U.S. federal investigators on Wednesday blamed the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history on poor management and failure to respond to critical indicators by companies drilling the doomed Macondo well.

In their final report, investigators from the Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said BP made decisions that increased risks and Transocean misinterpreted a critical test prior to last year’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The likelihood of the blowout would have been less if workers from the British oil company, Halliburton Co and Transocean had been more careful, investigators probing the disaster said Wednesday. Increased awareness and vigilance from personnel at those companies “would have reduced the likelihood of the blowout occurring,” according to a 217-page report. Last year’s explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and spewed more than 4 million barrels of oil from the Macondo well into the sea.

The drilling disaster spurred a slew of investigations, lawsuits and regulatory reforms. The Justice Department has already sued the well’s owners, BP, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Mitsui Co Ltd., as well as Transocean. More charges could be brought, however, and the findings from federal investigators could provide fodder for lawsuits that BP and its contractors have filed blaming each other for the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

A SERIES OF MISTAKES

Other official investigations of the spill have blamed the catastrophe on a series of mistakes made by BP and its partners.

Probes conducted by a presidential commission and the National Academies have said one key mistake was the rig crew’s decision to move ahead with the abandonment of the well despite tests that indicated problems with the well’s integrity. The presidential commission also blamed contractor Halliburton for faulty cementing on the well. The Coast Guard also released a draft report in April citing serious safety lapses in the lead up to the accident by Transocean, which as the owner the oil rig, falls under the USCG’s jurisdiction.

Both Halliburton and Transocean strongly dispute these findings, however.

Unlike some of the earlier probes, the report from the Coast Guard and BOEM included findings about Macondo’s blowout preventer, which was supposed to act as a last line of defense against a major spill. A forensic review commissioned by the federal team found that an off-center pipe stopped the device from operating properly.

REGULATORY CHANGES

In addition to the legal impacts of the federal report, the team’s investigation may lead to further changes in the regulatory landscape for offshore drilling.

Following the Gulf spill, the government imposed a raft a new rules aimed at preventing another disaster and began a complete reorganization of the scandal-prone offshore drilling agency, which was then known as the Minerals Management Service.
The new rules, coupled with a temporary moratorium on deepwater oil exploration, slowed oil and gas development in the Gulf significantly.

Oil drilling activity is picking back up in the region, with 20 deepwater floaters drilling in area, up from 4 at this point last year, according to a Barclays Capital Research note. Bromwich said the team’s findings would help guide future regulatory efforts for his agency, but he does not anticipate the report will call for any immediate changes in drilling rules.

Special thanks to Richard Charter.

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/12/140405282/cuban-offshore-drilling-plans-raise-u-s-concerns

National Public Radio
September 12, 2011

by NICK MIROFF

An oil rig built by China is now en route to the deep waters off northwest Cuba, where it could begin drilling exploratory wells as soon as November.

Recently, U.S. oil spill experts were in Havana, including the man who co-chaired the investigation into last year’s BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. group says long-running American trade sanctions stand in the way of proper spill preparation and a coordinated cleanup if something goes wrong on the wells that are just 60 miles from the Florida Keys.

Offshore oil drilling is banned along the Florida coastline. But the Cuban operation will be so close to U.S. shores that ocean currents could carry a spill through the Florida Keys, and foul beaches along the Atlantic Coast.

When former EPA Administrator William Reilly met with Cuban officials in Havana last week, he said the Cubans were serious about safety, even quoting from recommendations he’d written in the Deepwater Horizon report.

I have the impression they are deeply aware, very conscious, and quite apprehensive about what could go wrong.
– William Reilly, former EPA administrator who spoke with Cuban officials about offshore drilling

“I have the impression they are deeply aware, very conscious, and quite apprehensive about what could go wrong,” he said. “They know they’ve never regulated oil and gas in the offshore environment before. They know it’s an order of magnitude more sophisticated and more risky. They’re going to go very deep. All of those are going to require training, expertise and a culture they’ve not had. They’ve got a lot to do.”

The rig will not be operated by Cuba, but by foreign partners, led by the Spanish energy company Repsol. Geologists have estimated there may be 5 billion to 20 billion barrels of undersea oil off the island’s northwest coast, enough to make Cuba a significant producer.
A major find would also be a huge boost to the cash-strapped Cuban government, and Florida lawmakers have criticized the delegation’s trip, saying it lends “credibility” to the drilling plans.

Dan Whittle is an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, which organized the trip. He defended its goals.

“By all accounts, Cuba intends to start drilling as early as November or December. So we can’t simply hope it won’t happen. If and when Cuba drills, it’s simply imperative that we be at the ready to ensure that they get it right, that they do it safely and in an environmentally sound manner,” he said. “So this isn’t about politics. It’s about protecting our beaches, our shores, our fisherman, our communities.”

Unexpected Alliance

Cuba’s drilling plans have made for some unusual alliances between environmentalists like Whittle and oil industry veterans pushing for the U.S. to engage Cuba on contingency planning.

Lee Hunt is president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, which is based in Houston and represents rig operators.

He said Cuba wants American help and has not cut corners on safety. Cuba has also sent hundreds of engineers to be trained with deep-water experts in Norway and Brazil. The rig, Hunt added, will have even more advanced safety mechanisms than the Deepwater Horizon.

“We don’t need to be afraid of a Chinese rig working in Cuban waters. They’re working everywhere around the world. We don’t need to have excessive anxiety over a Spanish oil company. They’re a world-class operator,” he said.

“What we do have a concern with are the impediments to the operator and contractor acquiring, in a timely fashion, the appropriate technology for prevention, and in the event of a disaster, for spill response and containment,” he added.

Hunt said thousands of jobs could be created if American drilling equipment suppliers and cleanup contractors along the Gulf Coast were licensed to do business with Cuba. If not, he said, cleanup supplies might have to come from as far away as England or Brazil.

Special thanks to Richard Charter.

http://www.redstate.com/vladimir/2011/09/10/good-news-oil-drilling-off-florida-begins-nov-1-bad-news-its-in-cuba/

To all you NIMBYs in Florida and elsewhere, you can rest well with the knowledge that the best of Cuban industrial technology will be brought to bear in overseeing this operation. Per Richard Charter

Posted by Steve Maley
Saturday, September 10th at 1:00PM EDT

While it’s been the subject of rumor, gossip and misinformation for the last several years, this time it’s real: drilling off the north shore of Cuba is scheduled to begin November 1. Six wells are planned to be drilled with this rig by the various international companies who own exploration rights off the north shore of the island.

ŠSpanish energy company Repsol and its partners are now bringing the Chinese-built [drilling rig] Scarabeo 9 to a site off Cuba’s northwest coast, where it aims to drill as soon as November at a depth of more than 5,500 feet, deeper than the blown-out well that spewed 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf last summer.

The [rig’s] journey to Cuba will take two months, and once it arrives it will be put into operation almost immediately, said the official, who asked not to be identified. It will be used first as an exploratory well for a consortium led by Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF, which drilled the only offshore well in Cuba in 2004 and said at the time it had found hydrocarbons. [Source.]

The current trade embargo requires the operation contain less than 10% U.S. content. Of the major components, only the blowout preventer (BOP) is an American product (Cameron International).

A high-level delegation of U.S. oil-spill experts traveled to Havana this week to meet with Cuban officials. It has urged the Obama administration to cooperate with the Castro government on a joint-response plan that could avert environmental catastrophe for both countries. Š

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a long-time Castro foe, criticized the delegation’s visit, saying it gave “credibility” to Cuba’s attempt to become “the oil tycoons of the Caribbean.” Other lawmakers have also urged retaliatory measures against Repsol.

Repsol, the operator of the first Cuban drilling venture, is a large Spanish oil company with operations in 29 countries, including a $10 billion investment in Iran. It is also a lessee in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Š Bromwich confirmed that federal officials have talked with Spain’s Repsol about its plans to drill off Cuba later this year but haven’t made a deal to ensure that work meets the same standards it would if it were in U.S. waters.

Repsol has said it plans to begin drilling a well as soon as this summer in Cuban waters. Other international oil companies have lined up drilling afterward, including Malaysia’s Petronas and India’s ONGC Videsh. Cuban officials have said five wells could be drilled in the country’s Gulf of Mexico territory. [Source.]

In U.S. waters, drilling is regulated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management &etc. (BOEMRE), an agency of the Department of the Interior led by Director Michael Bromwich. U.S. Federal jurisdiction ends 45 miles from Florida’s shores. This drilling will take place 60 miles from Florida.

While Cuban oil officials will manage and regulate the operations, the engineers and crews doing the actually drilling will be composed of experienced international oil workers, said [Lee Hunt, representing the International Association of Drilling Contractors, part of the U.S. delegation]. An Italian firm, Saipem, will be operating the rig, and Repsol’s partners include Statoil, a Norwegian company that he and others praise as a world leader in safe deepwater drilling. [Source.]
“Cuban oil officials will manage and regulate the operationsŠ” Oh, joy.

Special thanks to Richard Charter.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/09/tropical_storm_lee_surge_revea.html

Big surprise. DeeVon

Times-Picayune

Published: Friday, September 09, 2011, 7:00 AM
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune

Surge from Tropical Storm Lee uncovered numerous tar mats, dozens of tar balls and abandoned strings of oil snare pom-poms along a stretch of Fourchon Beach owned by the Wisner Donation Trust, according to the property’s manager. “The beach got hit hard by surge, as it always does,” said Cathy Norman, secretary-treasurer and land manager for the trust. “With all the sand removed, many things were uncovered, including these huge tar mat areas.

“In some locations, the mats fell apart and tar balls blew up the beach and into the back marsh,” Norman said. “The surge also uncovered oil snare and pieces of equipment that got buried during the BP oil spill response, including all these stakes that were used to hang the snare in the water to catch oil.”
Norman said a BP representative was inspecting the beach on Wednesday, even as she and her staff were assessing the oil and equipment.

“We have teams conducting post-storm assessments along coastal beaches to determine what may have developed on the beaches and barrier islands as a result of Tropical Storm Lee,” said BP spokesman Curtis Thomas. “As these teams report results of their assessments over the coming days, response teams will be mobilized as necessary to respond to these affected areas.”
“If anyone has concerns regarding oil or tar balls on the beaches they should call the Response Center at 800.424.8802,” he said in an e-mail.

BP contractors were scooping tar balls off Alabama Gulf Coast beaches on Wednesday after similar reports. The material will be tested to determine whether it is from the BP Macondo well that erupted in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

Coast Guard officials, who operate a Unified Incident Command office with BP in New Orleans to respond to BP oil cleanup issues, said there were no reports to its National Response Center of oil on Louisiana shorelines since Lee cleared out of the area on Tuesday.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Elizabeth Bordelon said Marine Safety Office officials in Morgan City and Houma also had no reports of tar balls or oil along Louisiana’s coast.

Under the Wisner trust, which was donated in 1914 to the city of New Orleans under a 100-year agreement, the city receives 34.8 percent of the trust’s revenue, Charity Hospital and the state of Louisiana receive 12 percent, and the rest goes to Tulane University, the Salvation Army and heirs of Edward Wisner. The city’s revenue is distributed through its Wisner Fund as grants for health, beautification, education and capital projects.

Much of Port Fourchon, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port’s onshore operations, facilities owned by Chevron Oil and a number of other oil- and gas-production facilities all sit on Wisner land.

Norman also said Lee surge water retreating from interior wetlands cut new pathways through the beach. She blamed that on BP contractors’ failure to remove barriers erected last year along existing passes to keep oil-stained Gulf waters from reaching the wetlands.

“They had built a huge land bridge and three sheet metal dams to close breaches and prevent oily water from moving inland,” Norman said. “We asked when they installed them to remove them when they were no longer needed. When the storm came in, all of a sudden, we’ve got brand new breaches in areas where it never breached before.

“They’ve completely altered the hydrology along the beach,” she said.
At several spots where contractors did use heavy equipment to dig out tar mats last year, the unconsolidated sand used to fill the holes has washed out and been lost to the beach, Norman said.

Norman said the uncovering of the new tar mats and tar balls should come as no surprise. The trust has been complaining to BP and Coast Guard officials for months about oil remaining just beneath the surface of the beach sand and just offshore.

“We’ve been responding all along to the ongoing contamination we’ve insisted has been there,” she said. “We’ve done our own science on tar balls and residual oil we’ve found and turned it over to BP and the contractor down there that’s in charge of cleanup.”

But instead of increasing cleanup efforts, the work tapered off and became part of what BP and Coast Guard have labeled a program of monitoring and maintenance, she said.

“We have never been out of response mode. We’ve been out there without a pause, only slowed down a bit during nesting season this spring,” Norman said. “We have never stopped seeing oil and they have never cleaned it up.”

Mark Schleifstein can be reached at mschleifstein@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3327.
_______
Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/09/07/Dont-talk-oil-with-Cuba-lawmaker-warns/UPI-36531315399515/

Published: Sept. 7, 2011 at 8:45 AM

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI) — Washington is sending the wrong message by having a delegation in Cuba review the country’s plans to drill offshore for oil and natural gas, a lawmaker said.

A delegation led by William Reilly, a top official at the National Oil Spill Commission, left Monday for Cuba to examine Havana’s oil plans.

Cuba is looking into cutting the amount of oil it imports from Venezuela through development of offshore reserves.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement, said sending a U.S. delegation to Cuba sends the wrong message.

“By meeting with Cuban regime officials about their plans to drill for oil, U.S. officials are giving credibility to the regime’s dangerous oil-drilling scheme,” she said.
Deep-water exploration is under scrutiny following last year’s disastrous spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Spanish energy company Repsol leads an international consortium to drill off the Cuban shore this year. The Wall Street Journal notes that if the company finds oil in Cuba’s deep waters, it could spark a race to tap into those reserves.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that, as of 2009, Cuba had less than 1 billion barrels of oil reserves.