Preventing blowouts: drilling safety top priority in state.

• Author: Bradner, Mike
• Position: OIL & GAS

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The Macondo oil well blowout in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has heightened concern over safety practices in the oil and gas industry like nothing since the Exxon Valdez tanker accident in Alaska in 1989. Like Exxon Valdez, Macondo was a wake-up call. Drilling safety has moved to the forefront in terms of concerns about the industry. In Alaska, this has manifested itself in the intense focus on plans by Shell and other companies to drill in the Arctic offshore in 2012 and 2013. But there are concerns for everything offshore with oil, including the new drilling by a jack-up rig in Cook Inlet, in southern Alaska and also onshore wells. A lot of attention by the public and government regulators is on oil spill cleanup and how it could be done in the Arctic, but the attention of regulators also is focused intensely on spill prevention, which really means the prevention of an accidental release of oil and particularly the prevention of a well blowout, as happened at the Macondo well.

"Our message to the president's commission reviewing the Macondo disaster is that the emphasis of regulators should be on prevention, not so much response," said John Norman, one of three Commissioners of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. "The emphasis should be on keeping the cage door closed and locked, not just planning how to recapture the tiger after it has escaped," Norman said. The AOGCC is an independent State regulatory commission that provides oversight on drilling safety and other industry practices.

STRINGENT RULES

The State of Alaska's drilling rules were very strong even before Macondo--stronger that the federal government's--and a detailed post-Macondo review of regulations by the AOGCC and outside experts revealed no major flaws except in one area, a specific requirement for a plan to control a blowout, according to Kathy Foerster, another AOGCC Commissioners. The authority to require such a plan will be requested from the State Legislature in its 2012 session, Foerster said, because it will require an amendment to the conservation commission's governing statute.

Interestingly, Alaska is the only U.S. state to conduct a detailed review of drilling regulations following the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The Commission is also adding to its staff of inspectors and drilling engineers because of the greater scrutiny that the State is giving drilling operations, Norman said.

The federal government has moved aggressively to institute reforms of its offshore drilling regulatory...