Gulf Coast – Leaders in Offshore Protocol and Safety

Emerging technologies are enhancing exploration of the waters off the Gulf Coast with safety as a priority.

As technologies advance, oil companies continue to develop and refine the drilling and production methods to coincide with the available and ever-evolving discoveries of new plays and increased production of mature ones. Today, offshore oil production and efficiencies have reached unprecedented levels, permitting drilling and production to occur farther and farther from shore, and into deeper and deeper waters.

History of Offshore Drilling

The quest to develop offshore hydrocarbon reserves began as far back as the 1890s. Oil companies began drilling wells from barges connected to the shore off the coast of California. This development resulted in a modest 455 feet of drilling and low yields. The independent firms Pure Oil and Superior Oil began constructing the first freestanding drilling rigs in 1938, a mile and a half offshore, despite being marred by engineering and organizational challenges.

By 1947, this Creole platform had initiated the start of exploration into the uncharted territory of deeper waters, resulting in the first fixed platform—Kermac 16, the first well to be drilled beyond the sight of land. With time came improvements and, by 1957, there were 446 production platforms that could be found in federal and state waters in the United States alone.

However, the greatest innovation for offshore drilling came in 1962 when Shell successfully mastered a pilot floating drilling platform after seven years of research. Shell’s decision to distribute the blueprint to other oil and gas companies for a meager fee was even more surprising than the innovation itself. Today, the offshore drilling industry is an ever-dominating part of the oil and gas industry, with innovation and research continuously propelling the industry forward into challenging deepwater plays and mega oil projects.

By the end of the 20th century, the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, and West Africa had become known as the “New Golden Triangle.” Analysts believed that the largest reserves could be found here. Today, the main offshore fields in North America are located in the Gulf of Mexico, California, and off the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Unique Features of Gulf Coast

As the birthplace of offshore drilling, the Gulf of Mexico has long held some of the major offshore plays in the world. It has remained a vital source of oil and gas for the United States over the years with its unique geology. The salt sheets and domes, which form impenetrable areas for hydrocarbons to accumulate, create exceptional traps. Meanwhile, the many rock formations create naturally shaped dune sections, known as anticlines that act as natural oil traps. These unique geological features combined with the Mississippi River’s sand-rich depositional system have resulted in some of the greatest offshore oil assets in the world. However, the abundance of sediment deposited from the Mississippi River has also resulted in large congregations of oxygen-deficient water, which consequently generates a high rate of gas formation. This soaring rate of gas formation is the leading cause of well-control loss or blowouts, one of the primary safety issues related to offshore drilling.

Safety Risks Noted

The adverse conditions present on drilling platforms are only magnified by the remoteness of offshore facilities and the limited space available on platforms. Safety issues arise more exponentially as exploration moves into uncharted deeper waters where maintaining blowout preventers can get challenging.

Hydrates are also one of the concerns prevalent at low temperatures and with the high-pressure conditions present at the bottom of the ocean. Hydrates are part of a bigger group of compounds called clathrate compounds, which are formed when molecules of a substance solidify into a crystal structure and trap smaller molecules of another substance. They are especially prevalent in the offshore industry where, together with other potential solid depositions such as waxes, asphaltenes, and scales, they pose a significant threat.

History witnessed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sinking just two days after the Macondo well (located one mile underwater) took nearly three months to fully contain. This has become known as the worst environmental disaster in the history of the petroleum industry. The world watched as one attempt after the other failed to cap the well. When it was over, more than four million barrels of Louisiana crude oil had entered the Gulf, disturbing the region’s economy, spoiling habitats, and fisheries—tarnishing the reputation of offshore drilling.

Serious Solutions Sought

The days following the disaster were crucial to establishing safe and sustainable methods of exploiting future reserves of the Gulf, as well as to earn the people’s trust back.

Immediate focus was directed towards proactive measures to prevent future catastrophes in offshore drilling. The movement to start reassessing the face of the offshore drilling industry began shortly after this colossal blowout on May 22, 2010. An independent commission was named by President Obama in order to assess the issues that were brought to light as a result of poor and improper safety measures. The newly named National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, co-chaired by former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly, looked at improving industry practices as well as federal laws and regulations.

Key inquiries for the commission included drilling safety, regulatory oversight, oil spill response, and restoration approaches.

The repercussions of the incident fell upon the Mineral Management Service (MMS), the federal agency in the Department of the Interior (DOI) responsible for overseeing offshore well drilling and operations. Although the need to reorganize the MMS was recognized prior to the spill with government officials voicing concerns for the conflict of missions within the organization, a faster response was initiated in the days following the oil spill.

Within days of the Deepwater Horizon rig sinking, the reorganization of the MMS was underway with Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior, announcing the formal separation of the MMS’s leasing, revenue collection, and permitting functions into a single entity, and creating a separate body for the environmental enforcement and safety responsibilities. The MMS was further separated into three distinct bodies:

1. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
2. Bureau of Safety and Environment Enforcement
3. The Office of Natural Resource Revenue

In addition, the United State’s Interior Department announced new offshore oil and gas regulations during the moratorium on deepwater drilling. The new rules provided clarification on well casing, cementing, safety certification, emergency worker training and response, and blowout preventers. These new policies were designed to provide clarification to the current practices in place and instill new safety measures while contending with the subsequent risks that always underlie production operations.

Progress and Protocol

As one of the key petroleum-producing areas of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico has a critical need to be sustainably developed. With the continuous progression of exploration into deeper and deeper waters, this need has only strengthened.

The adoption of a more thorough and effective safety regime has long been recognized in the offshore industry. However, the practice was not implemented until recent events catapulted the offshore drilling industry into the spotlight. With the continued reliance on deepwater plays to compensate America’s appetite for oil, the industry has already started the long road of ensuring that large disasters do not occur in the future.

History and hindsight will not be enough to ensure the safety and sustainability of the offshore drilling platforms. Progressive vision on tech advancements by innovators and the oil and gas industry must take the lead in ensuring the safety of not only its workers, but also our fragile and most delicate lifeline—the environment.