To keep Gulf Coast Community informed of the British Petroleum commitment to openess and transparency the following communication from the company is presented for your review through Examiner.com writer, Hank Richards, a registered media news recipient of the British Petroleum press pool. BP's conveys this message to its Gulf Coast neighbors.
(BPXP) British Petroleum Exploration and Production will implement a new set of deepwater oil and gas drilling standards for its operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the company's commitment to safety and reliability.
The guiidelines were outlined in a letter to the director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
The following highlights are British Petroleum's voluntary standard
- Use and require its contractors involved in drilling operations to use, subsea blowout preventers (BOPs) equipped with no fewer than two blind shear rams and a casing shear ram on all drilling rigs under contract to BPXP for deepwater service operating in dynamic position mode.
- Each time a subsea BOP from a moored or dynamically-positioned drilling rig is brought to the surface and testing and maintenance on the BOP are conducted, BPXP will require that a third party verify that the testing and maintenance of the BOP.
- Require that laboratory testing of cement slurries for primary cementing of casing and exposed hydrocarbon-bearing zones relating to drilling operations of deepwater wells be conducted or witnessed by a BPXP engineer competent to evaluate such laboratory testing, or a competent third party independent of the cement provider.
- Oil Spill Response Plan (OSRP) will include information about enhanced measures for responding to a spill in open water, near-shore response and shoreline spill response based on lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
BP has also implemented several actions that demonstrate commitment to excellence within its operations.
- Establishing a real-time drilling operations center in Houston
- Assessing and increasing well control competencies
- Collaboration with groups like Clean Gulf Associates and Marine Spill Response Corporation to augment and enhance industry response technology and capabilities
- Support of the Marine Well Containment Company with containment knowledge, equipment and staff
- Sharing the company's experience in simultaneous operations, which incorporated the unprecedented use of remotely operated vehicles and close quarters management of marine response vessels and activities
- Collaboration with BOEMRE, the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee, the Center for Offshore Safety and others in a joint technology program focusing on BOP systems
BP will implement these new voluntary standards in the Gulf of Mexico and share information on these standards with regulators and operators as part of its ongoing sharing of lessons learned.
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This column was prepared for publication by Hank Richards, Examiner writer for Huntsville, Alexandria, the British Petroleum Recovery Program and the Gulport/Biloxi/Gulcoast restoraton region.
To report a breaking story or to write a letter to the editor for publication, contact Hank at (256) 417-6084 or send at email to tips@pronlinenews.com at his website www.pronlinenews.com
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