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Burden of safety proof increasing on producers //
From Houston Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy
Other countries are learning the lesson from BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In recent months, offshore disasters around the globe have prompted swift and stringent response from regulators.
After a 3,000-barrel spill from a deep-water well off Rio de Janeiro in November, in which no one was killed or injured, Brazil’s environmental regulator fined the rig’s operator, Chevron, and its owner, Transocean, about $34 million. That number likely will rise because it hasn’t specified an amount for a third fine levied late last month.
It also suspended Chevron’s drilling operations in late November and denied it access to new offshore fields.
While local politics figures into the response, it shows how regulators no longer trust the industry’s reassurances that it can contain – let alone prevent – a major deep-water disaster.
// Learn MoreUK investment at ‘record levels’ – report //
High oil prices pushed capital investment in the UK oil and gas industry to “record levels” last year despite a dip in drilling activity, a report from an industry stalwart claims.
Eoin O’Cinneide Upstream 10 January 2012 10:08 GMT
Such high investment is expected to continue “until at least 2014” although there will be a move away from exploration and appraisal (E&A) projects to development, according to industry consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
Some £7.5 billion ($11.6 billion today) in capital investment was pumped into the UK upstream oil and gas sector last year, a figure which represented “an all time high”, the research outfit’s latest report claimed.
“Wood Mackenzie expects investment to stay consistently high until at least 2014, as new fields are brought into development and incremental projects on existing fields are moved forward, including over £2 billion ($3 billion) expected investment in 2012 in the West of Shetlands area,” it wrote.
// Learn MoreCase Studies
Damage Assessment of a Wellhead Using 3DM //
During installation, a wellhead was impacted by a Blow-out Preventer (BOP). Geometry of the wellhead was required to facilitate removal and replacement of the damaged gasket.
