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Well, thank goodness the paperwork is not dangerous...
Still believed to be a ticking time bomb in the Gulf, a federal investigation has declared the working conditions at the Atlantis deepwater platform, operating in water nearly 2000 feet deeper than the Deepwater Horizon drilled, are safe.
A database of thousands of documents related to the performance of the rig was found to be "disorganized, inadequate, and confusing" but did not jeopardize workers at the site. After an 11-month probe, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) said the violations were "unfounded" based on statements from a former BP contractor that workers on the platform lacked access to critical engineer-approved drawings of the facility.
Industry experts liken the database to an "operating manual" that is critical to being able to respond to an accident or technical problem, particularly if they involve components thousands of metres under the water.
But the investigation found that the allegations that engineers on board the platform lacked access to the right documents was "without merit" and said no evidence had been found that the database deficiencies made for unsafe operating conditions.
The Interior Department agency issued an "incident of noncompliance" citing BP for not giving the government required drawings depicting changes to components at the site. But the bureau did not seek civil penalties in connection with the violation after concluding that the issue was swiftly corrected and did not pose an immediate safety risk.
The investigation, which had also been called for by members of Congress, said that there were no grounds to force BP to suspend operations or remove its license. But it did make recommendations to tighten up existing regulations to require all operators to keep up to date the "as-built" drawings and documents of components that show how they have been installed on each platform.
The whistleblower, Ken Abbott, who worked for a BP subcontractor on the Altantis rig before being fired, made the allegations before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. The discredited – and now dissolved – offshore regulator MMS eventually began an investigation following pressure from members of Congress.
BP had always denied the claims that were laid against it, although some appeared to have been substantiated by its own independent safety ombudsman.
Abbott said in a statement that he was "disappointed but not really surprised." He took a jab at the ocean energy bureau, previously known as the Minerals Management Service, which he said aims first "to protect themselves and then the oil companies."
"They may have changed their name, but not their way of operating," Abbott said. Abbott vowed to continue pressing his case, which has been joined by Food and Water Watch, an environmental advocacy organization.
The group's executive director, Wenonah Hauter, said the bureau's report was "seriously flawed" and showed the agency was "protecting the interests of its industry cronies, rather than the public."
"The federal government dragged its feet on this investigation, and its findings are appalling - like a doctor's note for a truant student," Hauter said. "They are a weak attempt to cover BP's foul play. After all this time, the public deserves better."
After the blowout at BP's Macondo well last year, lawmakers seized on the Atlantis platform allegations and insisted that government regulators shut down the facility while Abbott's claims were investigated. But regulators rejected that request.
Congress - including Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., - said they were worried that because of the volume of oil produced at the Atlantis platform, a blowout there could make the Macondo gusher look like a trickle.
Operating in 7,000 feet of water, the Atlantis pumps crude from 16 production wells in territory far deeper than the destroyed Deepwater Horizon rig, which was drilling an exploratory well about 5,000 feet below the surface.
The Atlantis rig operates in the Green Canyon 743 field, southwest of where the Deepwater Horizon exploration was located. BP Atlantis pulls about 190,000 barrels of oil equivalent out of the field each day, an amount nearly four times what was spewing out of the Macondo well when it was capped last July.
BP has estimated that the Atlantis field contains recoverable reserves of 635 million barrels of oil equivalent.
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