New oil rig drilling to begin off Newfoundland

"Drill, baby, drill,"


After watching the horror of the gulf unfold it baffles me to think we may be heading into a realm of drilling uncertainty. It seems that while our attention is diverted, drilling will continue on and this time it will be 1km deeper than the gulf. To make matters worse, it's a different company, with different methods of disaster cleanup. How is this bad? You may ask. It's bad because the technology that's going back underwater is no different than that of the gulf. If something were to happen they would be doing the same thing that BP is doing. There is no sure shot solution to stopping a well at that depth and yet we continue to push boundaries with little regard to oceanic safety.


The other part that is worries me is the fact that Canada just sent a large amount of boom material down south. If something were to happen the powers at be would be scrambling for solutions and boom. The govt assures us that more boom is available via private industry. According to them there's lots of the stuff just sitting in inventory waiting for purchase. So why wasn't all this sent down to the gulf when it was needed? At any rate, we are still learning how to plug leaking wells at 5000ft and yet we continue to green light projects. How can we be allowing this to continue if we still do not have a solution to fixing underwater wells. None of the top kill, junk shot or top hats solutions have worked so if lightning strikes twice, the east coast is going to be in for a hellish ride. Maybe we should we just get two oil spills going and then have a competition to see who can plug theirs first? This is absurd.

Some scary quotes:

"We're not going to shut down or offshore (drilling) under these circumstances," said Kathy Dunderdale, the province's natural resources minister. "We have a degree of security -- as much as one can rely on -- that the proper measures and countermeasures are in place."

SECURITY? HOW DOES THIS HELP PLUG A WELL?

"There are never any guarantees in this business. But we are pretty confident that Chevron has met the regulatory requirements of the board. And they've got a state-of-the-art drill ship there."

DIDNT BP??

Full Story:

Deeper Oil Rig Set To Begin

Chevron began exploratory drilling last month in the Orphan Basin, about 430 kilometres northeast of St. John's.

OTTAWA — One of the ships hired by Chevron to drill a relief well at a deepsea project off the coast of Newfoundland is being used by BP to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, raising questions about how quickly it could be deployed to Canada's coast if a spill occurs.

Current Status

I think that there is nothing wrong with either of these companies doing deep water drilling. There is plenty of evidence available that shows that BP took unnecessary risks and that sequential mistakes were made before and after the blowout. They broke some fundamental rules of well control and they were bitten by their own haste. The industry as a whole now has a heightened awareness and it is doubtful that they will make the same mistakes.

I hope you're right Mike. This isn't the only industry that likes to speed things along. I certainly hope that future events like this NEVER happen and that the gulf was a fluke.

Time will tell.

Now if something were to happen, its going to be messy.

T.B.E.

Originally posted by TheBitterEnd
I hope you're right Mike. This isn't the only industry that likes to speed things along. I certainly hope that future events like this NEVER happen and that the gulf was a fluke.

Time will tell.

Now if something were to happen, its going to be messy.

T.B.E.

I do too. Accidents happen and all that but as you say... it could get messy... anything else could be the tipping point for worst things.