Well, that was rather quick. Are you sure we want to trust these guys? I didn't think so. But there it is... BOEM approved and everything. (You know, the new and improved BOEMRE.)
BP's first post-blowout exploration plan is approved.
The Bureau of Energy Management on Friday approved a supplemental exploration plan for BP to drill four wells in about 6,000 feet of water... 192 miles off the Louisiana coast after revisions were made to a previously approved drilling plan for its Kaskida prospect.
(We'll get to this water thing in a minute...)
The move expands BP’s government-approved 2008 plan to drill up to five wells at the site by allowing the company to drill two more wells and change the location of two others.
But before the company could launch work on the wells, federal regulators would also have to approve BP’s plan for responding to any oil spills in the area. And under the just-approved revised exploration plan, BP would still have to secure separate permits to drill specific wells at the Kaskida field.
Safety? In water a thousand feet deeper than the Macondo wellhead? Tommy Beaudreau, the director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, says oil people are going to do it right this time. No, no...really, they are. They promise...
Offshore drilling regulators are “dedicated to ensuring that the development of the nation’s energy resources is conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,” said Beaudreau. “Our review of BP’s plan included verification of BP’s compliance with the heightened standards that all deepwater activities must meet.”
In approving BP’s revised exploration plan, the ocean energy bureau assessed the environmental consequences of the proposed drilling and concluded there would likely be “no significant impact” from the work. Those environmental assessments — generally required under federal law — were routinely waived before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
According to a news release announcing the move, the ocean energy bureau confirmed BP’s compliance with new drilling safety and environmental standards imposed since last year’s spill.
Okay. Sure.
BP said that it is indeed true. They intend to be saintly when it comes to safety. Cut corners to save a nickel more in profit? Ain't gonna happen. They have learned their lesson like good little rat bastards...
“Drilling at Kaskida would be subject to BOEMRE requirements and BP’s voluntary standards we developed from lessons learned after the Deepwater Horizon accident,” the company said in a statement. “These voluntary standards exceed current government requirements.”
Voluntary? Exceeding government requirements? Have we missed something? You guys at BP are now moonlighting as comedy writers, right?
We. Don't. Believe. Anything. You. Say.
“BP said that with the approval of its revised exploration plan for Kaskida, the oil company now would be “working through the regulatory process for an application for permit to drill” — the essential next step in launching work on wells at the field.
Administration officials have rejected the idea that BP should be disqualified from drilling, based on its performance last year.
“We’re holding BP not just to our current standards but to higher standards,” said Walter Cruickshank, the Ocean Energy bureau’s deputy director. “From what we’ve seen over the past 20 months, there is certainly a strong commitment on their part to work better in the future than in the past.”
Really, Walter? You trust them? Why, for FSM's sake? Do you actually think they have changed? Or maybe just gotten a little better at being criminals, hmm...
At least one of our few good guys in Congress says the permitting process is going too fast, but he is probably only flying the flag, and can't really do anything. He's correct, though.
“Comprehensive safety legislation hasn’t passed Congress, and BP hasn’t paid the fines they owe for their spill, yet BP is being given back the keys to drill in the Gulf,” said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
Federal regulators have approved 43 wells since the moratorium on drilling after the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Although this is the first approval for BP under its own name, several BP partners have continued with business as usual. And, man, do they ever want to get back out there in the Gulf...
While BP has not drilled a new well since the 2010 oil spill, several of its Gulf projects have quietly moved forward. For instance, the Mad Dog South field, which BP operates with a 60.5 percent stake, recently was drilled by minority partner BHP Billiton Petroleum and proved to have a giant stash of oil. Last year, BP essentially transferred the operatorship of its Tubular Bells field to Hess Corp. in a $40 million deal that cut its stake in the field from 50 percent to 30 percent.
BP owns 100 percent of Kaskida after buying out Devon’s 30 percent stake in a $7 billion deal that included other assets in March 2010 — the month before the Macondo well blowout.
BP announced the discovery of its Kaskida field in August 2006 after drilling a six-mile-deep well in an outer area of the U.S. Gulf known as Keathley Canyon and finding an 800-foot section of oily rock.
While the discovery was viewed as significant, it wasn’t until an appraisal well was drilled five miles to the west in 2009 that BP confirmed it was among its biggest finds ever in the U.S. offshore basin, holding as much as 3 billion barrels of oil.
Okay. Now for the really crappy part, which was referenced in the opening paragraphs. These new exploratory wells are deep - really deep.
BP’s newly proposed wells would be drilled in roughly 6,019 and 6,034 feet of water — about 1,030 feet deeper than Macondo. The company has estimated that in case of an emergency, it would take 184 days to drill a relief well at the site. Other interventions — including a system for containing runaway underwater wells — also would be available, BP said.
BP has not changed. They are not afraid of fines - it's factored into the cost of doing "bidness". The corporate culture has not varied one whit from the attitude that existed up to the second the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
There will be another blowout. More people will die. And 184 more days of oil will flood the Gulf.
Nothing has changed. Nothing.
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