Feb 22, 2021 News
By: Shikema Dey
Kaieteur News- Does the British Petroleum (BP) Macondo well blow out sound familiar?
Considered one of the largest marine spills in the history of the petroleum industry, remnants of this disaster still remain in the Gulf of Mexico. And the culprit of this catastrophe, BP, is expending billions of dollars for damages to this day.
Shockingly, such a major disaster could have occurred offshore Guyana back in November 2019 with the mud spill that that occurred in the Kanuku Block, operated by Spanish Oil Company, Repsol. This is according to the former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director, Dr. Vincent Adams.
He was at the time underscoring the need for 24/7 on site presence on oil vessels to ensure that what is reported by the oil companies is an accurate reflection of what is taking place on the rig.
Dr. Adams stated that from experience, over 90% of the time, much of what is reported by the contractors are half truths and far from the reality on site. It is this belief which led to his discovery that Guyana averted a major disaster in November 2019.
Dr. Adams detailed that back when he was at the helm of the EPA, he was informed of a drilling mud spill in the Repsol operated Kanuku Block.
For the reader’s knowledge, in petroleum engineering, drilling mud is a heavy, viscous fluid mixture that is used in oil and gas drilling operations to carry rock cuttings to the surface and also to lubricate and cool the drill bit.
What the EPA was told at the time of the report was that it was only “80 barrels of mud” that escaped into the ocean. But this was far from accurate.
Dr. Adams explained “Of course, 80 barrels of mud going into the ocean is not a big deal because it is just drilling mud. But because I know that whatever they reported could have been totally wrong or misrepresented, I told my staff to get out there immediately with a team to investigate what went on.”
“They got out there and you know what it was? We escaped a major disaster,” he continued.
When drilling, Dr. Adams explained the mud is placed into a compartment on the drill ship and then circulated back to the drill, keeping a continuous flow.
When the mud comes up, it contains “cuttings” which are broken bits of solid material removed from a borehole drilled by rotary, percussion, or other methods.
The mud, he stated, must be heavy enough to maintain a safe pressure level within reservoir. Drilling mud can weigh up to 22 or 23 pounds per gallon (PPG).
But instead of a steady circulation, Dr. Adams stated, the mud was being dumped straight into the ocean which could have led to a potential blow out.
“We could have had an empty hole without any pressure to maintain that well and the pressure could have blown the living daylights out of the well and we could have had a major disaster, then you have a British Petroleum type spill in the Gulf,” he continued.
“Guyana was lucky,” Dr. Adams said, that someone was passing by and noticed an open valve used to dump the mud. He added that when checks were made on site, EPA officers discovered that the very valve was scheduled for maintenance but later forgotten.
“It was put up for maintenance for a long time but nobody even paid attention to repair that valve. So those are the little things that you miss that can cause a disaster,” he said.
This is one of the main reasons why Dr. Adams has been advocating heavily on site monitoring on oilrigs offshore and for Guyana to ensure that it is fully protected in the event of an oil spill.
In ExxonMobil’s case, Guyana runs the risk of accepting liability for any oil disaster that may occur in the Stabroek Block area.
Why? The local subsidiary, which is the operator of the block has little assets; so little that in the event of any spill, it would not be able to foot the costs leaving Guyana to pick up the slack.
And while the local subsidiary promised to ensure that its parent companies, ExxonMobil, HESS and CNOOC/NEXEN accept liability of any potential oil disaster, one year has since passed and it has failed to provide this assurance in writing.
Imagine what would happen to Guyana if a spill like what occurred in the Gulf happens and the country is left to pay off billions of dollars for generations?
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