SO WHO has applied to resume deepwater drilling over the past seven months?
Early last month, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) approved the 10th deepwater well that “complies” with the new safety standards implemented in the wake of Deepwater Horizon. The 10th well, operated by Statoil, is a revision of an earlier approval to drill on Walker Ridge block 969.
“This permit allows the drilling of the 10th deepwater well since industry demonstrated in mid-February that it had the capacity to handle subsea blowouts and spills,” said BOEMRE director, Michael Bromwich. “Permit applications that satisfy our more rigorous safety and environmental standards and that demonstrate the necessary containment capabilities will be approved; those that do not will be rejected. That has been our approach and will continue to be our approach.”
As part of its approval process, the bureau reviewed Statoil’s ability to call on containment capability and, as noted in the above article, the Norwegian company belongs to both the MWCC and Helix consortia. This Statoil well was the last to be announced by BOEMRE, which hopes that the revised permitting process can settle down and increase in frequency, as the deepwater sector of the US Gulf is hugely important as a producer of domestic oil & gas to fuel the US economy.
According to BOEMRE, 16 companies held permits to drill exploration or development wells in waters greater than 305m (1,000ft) in depth in May 2010, when the moratorium was imposed, and more than half have been to companies that were in the process of drilling or preparing to drill at that time.
First through the approvals’ gate was Noble Energy with an application to drill a bypass on Mississippi Canyon block 519.
Bromwich said: “This permit represents a significant milestone for us and for the offshore oil & gas industry, and is an important step towards safely developing deepwater energy supplies offshore.
“This permit was issued for one simple reason: the operator successfully demonstrated that it can drill its deepwater well safely and that it is capable of containing a subsea blowout if it were to occur.”
Initial drilling on this well began on April 16, 2010, and was suspended on June 12 under the temporary drilling moratorium, issued in the wake of Deepwater Horizon. A bypass well is generally necessary if an operator needs to drill around a mechanical problem in the original hole to the original geologic target from the existing wellbore. In this case, Noble Energy was drilling around the plugs set in the original well when drilling was suspended to complete the project.
The other eight approvals comprise:
BHP Billiton gained approval to resume drilling a production well at its Shenzi development, which straddles Green Canyon blocks 609, 610, 653 and 654. The re-approved well was in-drill as the Obama ban was enforced.
A revised permit issued to ATP to drill a new well on Mississippi Canyon block 941. Initial drilling on ATP’s Well #4 began in August 2008, but was suspended in July 2009. A rig was on-location in April 2010 to prepare for installation of a production facility when activities were suspended due to the disaster.
ExxonMobil wins approval to drill on Keathley Canyon block 919. Again, this amounts to a resumption of activity, but with a revised permit.
Chevron is approved to drill on Keathley Canyon block 736. This is the first deepwater permit approved for completely new exploration since the moratorium was lifted.
Statoil: when the ban brought all deepwater drilling to a halt, Statoil had chartered a rig to drill its Cobra exploration on Alaminos Canyon block 810. Now it can go ahead.
Shell is given clearance to drill a new well on Garden Banks block 427.
Eni’s drilling of a sidetrack for well SS001 on Mississippi Canyon block 460. The Italian company had a rig on the SS001 well site, part of the company’s Appaloosa project, prior to the ban.
Murphy Exploration & Production Company to drill a bypass on Green Canyon block 338.
Recommended for you
