Tag: oil and gas industry

The Risks of Drilling in Alaska s Arctic Ocean

New report reviews oil and gas offshore accidents

Financial liability for all operators A provisional deal on proposed legislation for the safety of offshore oil and gas operations was struck by MEPs and Council negotiators last Thursday. Before oil and gas firms could get a licence to drill, the directive would require them to submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans and prove their ability to remedy any environmental damage caused."Europe learned its lessons from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and wants to reduce the risks of offshore oil and gas drilling to a minimum. Especially now that several member states are exploring new drilling operations, we need an efficient legislative framework. The previous directive is nearly 20 years old and does not guarantee the safety of offshore drilling operations in an adequate manner", said Ivo Belet (EPP, BE), who led the negotiations.This agreement ensures an EU legal framework that will help us to prevent offshore accidents in our seas and ensure rapid intervention which will limit potential damage", said Energy Committee Chair Amalia Sartori (EPP, IT).Financial ability to remedy all damage causedAll operators would need to ensure they have access to "sufficient physical, human and financial resources to minimise and rectify the impact of a major accident". ...

Growing Offshore Oil and Gas industry - Part 1/2

Growing Offshore Oil and Gas industry - Part 2/2

Military Ordnance in Gulf of Mexico Poses Threat to Shipping

North Sea , oil and gas

Leading Russian expert maintains New Russian oil platforms are not up for the task and shipping along the Northern Sea Route poses a great risk to Arctic nature, a leading Russian expert maintains.Talking at the international conference on Logistics in the Arctic, recently held in Murmansk, Mikhail Grigoriev claimed that new platforms built for operations in the Russian Arctic are insufficently well built.According to Grigoriev, an expert working for the science unit under the Russian Security Council, the two platforms built for the Shtokman project - the "Severnoye Siyanie" and the "Polyarnaya Zvezda", alone have about 700 flaws registered. The rigs, which formally were taken over by Gazprom-subsidiary Gazflot in 2011, are now based in the Far East. "When and how the flaws are to be eliminated, is incomprehensible," Rossiiskaya Gazeta quotes Grigoriev as saying. He believes the situation with the rigs is made more complicated with the continued postponments of the Shtokman project.Reportedly, Gazprom is now looking for a buyer for Gazflot and might hand over its ambitious vessel and rig development program to other companies.Grigoriev also voices concern about the quickly growing shipping along the Northern Sea Route. If an oil spill takes place half-way on the route, ...

Live drill for Gulf of Mexico equipment As part of the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to strengthen the oil and gas industry's ability to respond in the event of a deepwater blowout and ensure that offshore oil and gas production can continue to expand safely and responsibly, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today charged the Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) with conducting a live drill this summer to deploy critical pieces of state-of-the-art well control equipment in the Gulf of Mexico.The exercise would demonstrate the ability of MWCC to mobilize a capping stack - a device similar to the one that stopped the flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon's well - in a timely fashion from its on-shore base to the deep water seabed of the Gulf.This first-of-its-kind exercise will be overseen by Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which tests capping stacks on the surface as part of its overall responsibility to enforce the tougher offshore safety requirements implemented in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill."In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, we undertook the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas oversight in U.S. ...

To search for natural gas and oil Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said that Turkey will build its own seismic ship to search for natural gas and oil."A growing and developing Turkey cannot have a stagnant energy sector. All areas of Turkey are growing, therefore we will conduct our exploration activities with the latest technology," Yıldız said at a ceremony organized by the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries.A deal was signed between the General Directorate of Mineral Research Exploration (MTA), the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and the contractor that will build the ship.The ship will be built at the Tuzla shipyard in northwestern Turkey with the support of local industry, said Yıldız. The ship will be equipped with the latest technology and will be used for two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic exploration.According to Yılıdız, the ship will cost roughly 100 million euros and will be delivered to the MTA in 2014. The ship will be financed by the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry with mediation from the Undersecretariat of the Defense Industries as it is expert in shipbuilding commissions.When asked by reporters at the ceremony what will be the name of the ship, Yıldız said the ship currently does not have a ...