Engineers say Interior changed oil report after they signed it

[Cees Binkhorst]

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De waarheid besmeurd met olie.
Nogal dom dit, je mag toch verwachten dat dit opgemerkt wordt?

Groet / Cees

Engineers say Interior changed oil report after they signed it
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/11/95776/engineers-say-interior-changed.html
By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A group of engineers and oil experts said Friday that the
Interior Department changed the language of a high-profile oil spill
report after they'd signed it, falsely signaling their support for a
drilling moratorium that they thought went too far.

The new language called for a stronger and wider moratorium on some oil
drilling in the Gulf of Mexico than the experts thought necessary. In
fact, one said Friday, the stronger moratorium might instead increase
the risks slightly.

"The reason we don't agree is that we think it makes the system less
safe. It increases risk, it doesn't reduce risk," Texas oil consultant
Ken Allen said in an interview.

Allen was among a group of experts who read and signed a May 27
statement by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announcing new safety
measures for offshore drilling, as well as a six-month moratorium on
some drilling.

"The recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by
seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering,"
Salazar said in the report.

However, as Allen and the others said in a statement, Salazar changed
two key recommendations after they'd signed it.

The version they'd signed said Salazar recommended a six-month
moratorium on permits for new exploratory wells in water deeper than
1,000 feet.

The final version recommended a six-month moratorium on "new wells being
drilled using floating rigs." That included rigs in water deeper than
500 feet and covered more of them, Allen said.

Also, the version the experts signed called for "a temporary pause in
all current drilling operations for a sufficient length of time" to
perform additional safety tests for the 33 exploratory deepwater wells
already working in the Gulf.

The final version urged "an immediate halt to drilling operations on the
33 permitted wells, not including the relief wells currently being
drilled by BP, that are currently being drilled using floating rigs in
the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling operations should cease as soon as safely
practicable for a 6-month period."

Allen and the others said they agreed with all the other safety
recommendations. "However, we do not agree with the six-month blanket
moratorium on floating drilling," they said. "A moratorium was added
after the final review and was never agreed to by the contributors."

An Interior spokeswoman said the government didn't mean to say the
experts agreed with the moratorium.

"By listing the members of the (National Academy of Engineering) that
peer-reviewed the 22 safety recommendations contained in the report, we
didn't mean to imply that they also agreed with the moratorium on
deepwater drilling," Kendra Barkoff said.

"We acknowledge that they were not asked to review or comment on the
proposed moratorium and that they peer-reviewed the report on a
technical basis. The moratorium on deepwater drilling is based on the
need for a comprehensive review of safety in deepwater operations."

Allen said the moratorium could marginally increase the risk of another
spill.

"Stopping and temporarily abandoning the well and then re-entering the
well ... there is an element of risk," he said. "The Deepwater Horizon
was not drilling, it was temporarily abandoning the well. That's when
they ran into trouble."

Also, he said the six-month moratorium could drive owners of the rigs to
ship them elsewhere in the world to keep making money.

"The rigs that leave first are going to be bigger, newer rigs. The ones
that come back last are the newer, bigger rigs. ... It's not major. All
of them meet the requirements. But we're talking about marginal risks,"
Allen said.

As the rigs leave or shut down, experienced operators will go with them
or leave the industry, Allen said.

"When we start back up again, we're going to have a much harder time
getting them back. We'll have less experienced people on the rigs," he said.

Finally, he said Gulf oil production is starting to decline. He said one
small producer had told investors that it alone would produce 2 million
barrels fewer this year than it had thought it would.

"So we're going to have to import more oil by tanker," he said, "and ...
history tells us we have more spills by tanker."

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