Groups File Suit Against Deepwater Gulf Oil Rig

June 10, 2011

Federal officials overseeing a Shell Oil request to drill in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico are relying on false assumptions and accepting inadequate safety standards to prevent a repeat of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, environmentalists charged Thursday in a complaint filed in federal court to stop it.

Less than a year after oil stopped flowing from the worst spill in U.S. history, a coalition of environmental groups including Sierra Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Gulf Restoration Network filed suit in the U.S. 11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta to stop federal officials from giving the company permission to drill in deep water about 70 miles off the Louisiana coast.

The group, represented by Earthjustice, says the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, is relying on data that underestimates the risk of another deepwater spill while the company lacks the proper emergency equipment to handle an accident if it were to occur.

Shell officials have estimated the chance of spill at less than 1 in 10,000, a figure that federal officials used in approving the company’s request to drill a series of wells in 7,200 feet of water.

Shell has asked permission to drill eight deepwater wells in the region, three of which had already been approved.

The plaintiffs contend the risk data come from mostly shallow wells, which are far less risky to operate. Their own analysis of deepwater rigs points to a 1 in 43 chance of a spill. They also say that safety protocols and machinery needed to respond to a deepwater blowout won’t be in place until 2012.

“No reasonable person would agree to a 2.5 percent chance of having their house catch on fire,” Earthjustice Attorney David Guest told the News Service Thursday.

Shell’s plans were approved in May, the second such deepwater plans to be approved following the BP spill. Federal officials have approved a total of seven new wells since Oct. 2010. Another 38 revised new well plans have also been approved.

“This exploration plan was reviewed under the heightened standards we are now using to conduct site-specific environmental assessments,” BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich said of the Shell approval in May. “The standards are higher than they used to be, and further support our goal of ensuring that deepwater exploration is done more safely and with greater protections for the environment than ever before.”

By Michael Peltier
The News Service Of Florida

Comments

4 Responses to “Groups File Suit Against Deepwater Gulf Oil Rig”

  1. Gary Maher on June 10th, 2011 9:25 pm

    china mexico,and chavez are drilling all over the gulf in deep water and selling the oil to us,when will people learn that we must fend for our selves we cant keep sending our money overseas. alternative fuels and their distribution are years and years away we have to survive today and tommorrow

  2. Kay on June 10th, 2011 11:35 am

    The figures were compiled from shallow water wells, not from deep water
    wells and there is the problem. Trumped up figures that are not from the
    same depth wells as the one’s that will be drilled, all done so they would say yes
    to these wells. I hope they get this stopped. We need alternative fuels.

  3. Me on June 10th, 2011 9:16 am

    The plaintiffs content the risk factor for a spill is 1 in 43? How do they come up with such numbers. There have been thousands of deepwater wells drilled around the world, so accurate risk numbers should be easy to figure. Of course one would have to collect the data and have a fair knowledge of math. Maybe it is like my friend says, 87.2958% of all statistics are made up.

  4. 429SCJ on June 10th, 2011 8:41 am

    As the world screams for oil, engineers are pushing drilling technology to the limits. It was only a matter of time before an accident occured, componet failure and human negligence often walk hand in hand. I think the spill was an ecological diaster and we should learn from it, I also know we cannot have it both ways, cheap safe oil is history. What I do not understand is why BP would saddle us with Mr Fineburg?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News