Taking precautions

Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig this year, which killed 11 people and sent millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, was described as an anomaly by the oil industry. It was said to be an isolated incident, a terrible confluence of errors, that almost certainly couldn’t happen again.

Or could it?

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that in the months before and after the Deepwater Horizon accident, there were several serious spills and some close calls that were eerily similar. For example:

• A blowout occurred on a rig in Australia in August 2009, spilling oil for six weeks. Australian officials blamed the problems on “widespread and systemic” shortcomings and criticized lax oversight because of friendly relations between the oil company and regulators.

• A rig in the Gulf of Mexico, less than 20 miles from where the Deepwater Horizon would drill, had a blowout in April 2009. A 4,000-pound piece of equipment was displaced, and workers scrambled to activate the blowout preventer, which shut off the well. The accident was blamed on the crew’s failure to detect gas entering the well when it shouldn’t have been there and a change in operating procedure.

• In May, an oil rig in Norway nearly exploded after workers failed to recognize signs indicating problems with the well. As a result, a dangerous mixture of oil and gas surged up the pipeline. The crew avoided a blowout only because solid material being carried by the oil plugged the holes in the pipes.

With those incidents, it’s difficult to argue that the Deepwater Horizon was an anomaly. Offshore oil drilling may not be as safe as it’s made out to be. In a review of offshore drilling records from the Gulf of Mexico, Norway, Australia and the United Kingdom, The Wall Street Journal found that safety incidents on rigs had increased in recent years. The oil industry disputed the findings, and notes that 50,000 wells were drilled in the Gulf of Mexico without an incident like the Deepwater Horizon.

But the oil industry’s safety record simply doesn’t reflect the current reality of offshore drilling. David Pritchard, a petroleum engineer and consultant, did a study of 5,000 wells drilled in the gulf since 1993, seeking wells that were similar in difficulty and complexity to the one the Deepwater Horizon was drilling. He found 43 that were comparable.

“What is the real risk of occurrence of a catastrophic failure?” Pritchard said. “Is it one in 50,000 or is it now one in 43?”

As oil reserves in relatively shallow coastal waters have been depleted, rigs are moving into much deeper water and taking on increasingly difficult drilling assignments. The Deepwater Horizon’s drill riser ran through 5,000 feet of seawater before hitting the bottom of the ocean, and then it ran another 18,000 feet through earth before hitting its targeted oil reserve.

The oil industry continues to push the envelope and has been exploring wells in even deeper waters, and that presents greater risks. The question is whether those risks are being adequately managed or whether officials are placing too much trust in the oil industry and its record drilling under different circumstances.

“I believe that after drilling some 40,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico, that all of the nation, including the institutions of government, the Congress, as well as the executive branch and multiple administrations, were lulled into a sense of safety,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said during a congressional hearing last summer.

The Deepwater Horizon incident shouldn’t be seen as an anomaly that can never happen again. It should be seen as a warning. Congress should make sure that the oil industry is addressing the dangers of deep-water drilling and taking the right steps to make sure another disaster like that doesn’t happen again.