He stresses that what happened in the Gulf would never be allowed to happen in Newfoundland. To explain, Ruelokke outlines the differences in safety precautions between the Deepwater Horizon and Stena Carron. He cautions that his understanding of what caused the blowout and subsequent explosion in the Gulf is based on anecdotal evidence. But his understanding is that workers, as they prepared to abandon the Gulf well, pumped cement to replace the primary barrier with a concrete plug. However, the concrete was not given enough time to set, meaning the primary barrier could fail. It did.
“We believe the things that were done in the Gulf of Mexico were not in compliance with the existing regulations, and … probably not even in compliance with good oilfield practice,” Ruelokke says.
In Newfoundland, he notes, operators are required to maintain a two-barrier system. And the Stena Carron has three back-up fail-safes to trigger the blowout preventer and cap the well in case of emergency, something that didn’t happen in the Gulf, with devastating consequences. “There’s never been a blowout or loss of control here,” Ruelokke stresses.
Even so, the board did tighten oversight over the Stena Carron in the wake of the Gulf incident. On May 20, the C-NLOPB announced a series of measures, including more frequent audits and inspections, along with an “operations time-out” prior to penetrating any targets. That “time-out” will allow for a review of safety measures.
Chevron Canada, which is drilling Lona O-55, declined interview requests.
“What I can tell you is that Chevron’s focus for the Orphan Basin drilling program continues to be on ensuring safe and incident-free operations and protection of the environment,” Chevron spokesman Tim Murphy said in an e-mailed message.
Previously, company officials indicated they hired a third-party consultant to assess the Stena Carron’s blowout preventer.
“We’ve done a full inspection and testing of the blowout system, and all of the functions of that,” Mark MacLeod, Atlantic Canada manager for Chevron, told the St. John’s Telegram in early May. “Everything is good to go. We’re very confident that we’re ready to drill this well safely.”
When the regulator subsequently imposed tighter oversights on drilling, Chevron officials said they were co-operating fully.
Meanwhile, back at the C-NLOPB’s media briefing, Ruelokke says those aboard the Stena Carron are keenly aware of the microscope they are now under. “They are very conscious of the focus of the world that’s on them, but are equally confident in the fact that we would never allow such a thing to happen. Our policies, procedures, training and equipment are such that it will not happen.”
•••
That opinion is not shared by everyone.
Stephen Hazell is a lawyer for Ecojustice, the environmental lobby group formerly known as Sierra Legal Defence Fund. Hazell says regulators like the C-NLOPB have structural problems. He charges that the board has the mandate to facilitate development of the offshore, while simultaneously overseeing environmental and safety issues. The attitude, according to Hazell, is “drill baby drill, but don’t break any environmental or other laws.”
Hazell is not buoyed by Ruelokke’s reassurances. “To say that it couldn’t happen here, I just think is the foolishness that really only engineers can give.”
Hazell invokes the spectre of another Newfoundland oilfield disaster, the sinking of the drill rig Ocean Ranger in 1982 with the loss of 84 lives, as proof that the worst can, and has, happened. (The Ocean Ranger sank before the C-NLOPB came into existence.)
“Has everybody forgotten the Ocean Ranger already?” Hazell asks. “A catastrophic accident involving a drilling rig, and yes, maybe lessons have been learned, and yes there was a royal commission, but the idea that we could have catastrophic failures in the offshore drilling industry, we have some very recent experience of that in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
While Hazell sounds warnings about oversight, previous academic studies have accused the C-NLOPB of a lack of transparency on environmental issues such as oil spills at Newfoundland’s three producing platforms. Gail Fraser of York University’s faculty of environmental studies and Joanne Ellis of the St. John’s-based Crydium Group highlighted those concerns in a 2009 paper.
Fraser and Ellis sought five data sets from the C-NLOPB related to environmental monitoring data in the offshore industry. Among the information they requested was the frequency of oil sheens, and environmental effects monitoring plans for oil spills. The Board denied all five of their requests.
