The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon leaves many questions unanswered

 

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.
John F. Kennedy

 

Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

Afterthoughts

By Thomas Terrio

                 Spilling almost 800,000 litres per day, it is feared the recent catastrophic oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico may become the largest in the history of the United States, or perhaps the world. In comparison, the Exxon Valdez spilled over 40 million litres of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989 in the last great spill.

                 In my view, several questions need to be answered: first of all, why didn’t the so-called flow back shut-off valve cap the well after the explosion on the platform? Secondly, with so many drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, how often are these valves checked for proper function and emergency operation? Thirdly, why is it taking so long to cap this runaway well? Didn’t British Petroleum practise emergency disaster scenarios of how to cap a well in case of a blow-back valve failure? Finally, why wasn’t there a failsafe back-up system in place in order to stop the flow of raw crude oil into the open ocean if the primary shut-off valve failed? For example, nuclear power plants have a containment building meant to confine radiation outside the reactor core, in the case of a meltdown.

                 How ironic this environmental tragedy is happening almost one month to the day after US President Barack Obama proposed to open vast expanses of the American coastline to oil and natural gas drilling.

I’m not a big fan of what the environmentalists have done in the past forty years by handicapping society and leaving us dependant on foreign oil. After all, the US hasn’t built a nuclear power plant or oil refinery in 40 years.
                 In the past fifteen years there has been a strong PR lobby propagated by energy companies arguing the technology is safe for drilling and that the environmentalists are wrong about exploration on land or in the deep ocean. Sadly, this spill proves beyond any reasonable doubt—exploration technology is not safe for the environment. Not many people are aware of how serious the environmental situation is in the Gulf of Mexico.                  The Deepwater Horizon platform was built in 2001 by Hyundai in South Korea, and is a fifth generation state of the art platform with a drill depth of 30,000 feet. It is an ABS or American Bureau of Shipping platform, which is said to hold the highest safety and environmental standards. If this is so, and if such high standards were in place and monitored, then how could this catastrophic failure occur?

                 On September 2, 2009, BP announced it had discovered a gigantic oil field several miles underneath the Gulf of Mexico. The discovery, called the Tiber well in the Thunder Horse Field, roughly 250 miles southeast of Houston, is at a depth of approximately 35,000 feet and may contain 3 billion barrels of oil. BP has said these are some of the deepest wells ever drilled by an oil company and are considered part of a “high risk, high return” strategy implemented by the company. This is where the Deepwater Horizon caught fire and sunk.

                 All the wells mentioned in the Deep Water Activity Profile list are less than 10,000 feet deep; if so, then how can a well of 35,000 feet not be considered a danger to the welfare of the local environment and too risky to drill?

                 At first glance, this appears to be an accident. But in my view, what is needed is proof of how safe the technology is before new drilling is permitted anywhere off the coast of the US or Canada. It is clear, the Alberta Oil Sands are a much cleaner and safer alternative than deep ocean drilling, where the technology appears to be lacking in forethought, safety, supervision, and regulatory enforcement for exploration in such a forced environment.

                 Unfortunately, the lack of one or more of these key managerial components has ended in a catastrophic failure, resulting in another environmental disaster beyond the capability of man to repair and, without question—restore the land and sea to its former state. In the end, is the risk worth the oil?

Is the risk worth the oil?

Page design by Thomas Terrio

www.viewfromthewest.ca ©2010

All rights reserved

View from the West

Know more.

viewfromthewest.ca

Edition no. 66 May 2010

Homepage

Next page