Another offshore oil rig exploded and caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico on yesterday [Sept. 2, 2010], sending 13 crew members into the water and reigniting the debate about the safety of offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters.
The offshore oil platform, owned by Mariner Energy, was operating in shallow water (about 340 feet deep), when it caught fire. Officials are still investigating the cause of the blaze, but it looks as though it may have started in the crew's quarters. The Coast Guard initially reported a mile-long sheen of oil spreading from the damaged offshore rig, but later said that boats and aircraft were unable to spot any oil. The latest reports are that the accident probably did not spill any oil into the Gulf.
After the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in April, which killed 11 workers and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf over the next three-months, President Obama declared a 6-month moratorium on deepwater offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. The Mariner Energy accident, although minor by comparison, already has many people calling for a moratorium on all offshore drilling until tighter safety and operational regulations can be put in place.
According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, the new agency that overseas offshore oil and gas development, there are currently 3,333 offshore platforms drilling in depths of less than 500 feet, and 74 offshore wells in deeper water. Accidents are not uncommon--more than 100 fires occur every year on offshore platforms in the Gulf--but most are relatively minor incidents not unlike those that happen in any industrial facility.
What is more troubling is that Mariner Energy, like BP before it, has a long history of serious safety and regulatory violations that have led to repeated oil and chemical spills, severe worker injuries ranging from burns to paralysis, and, in the case of BP, a number of worker fatalities. BP and Mariner Energy are not alone. For the companies that drill for gas and oil in U.S. waters, the profits are so great, and the penalties so small for safety violations and on-the-cheap operations that having to pay occasional fines and damages is a relatively painless cost of doing business.
BP is facing the potential of stiffer penalties after the Deepwater Horizon spill, but the corporate lawyers are already hard at work trying to minimize the company's liability and finding ways to deny damages to people along the Gulf who suffered serious financial hardships as a result of BP's negligence.
Anyone who doubts the companies' attitudes about worker safety and environmental protection are cavalier should take a look at the nearly identical response plans the oil companies filed in support of their applications for offshore leases in the Gulf. While the companies claim the ability to quickly and effectively handle an oil spill several times worse than the Deepwater Horizon spill, their plans are filled with blank pages, misinformation, and strategies completely inadequate for that task.
While it is unrealistic to think that the Unites States will permanently stop companies from drilling offshore for oil and gas in American waters, it is not unreasonable to expect the government to institute effective regulations designed to protect the lives and health of workers and the natural environment, to make sure those regulations are followed to the letter, and to force violators to pay damages and penalties that are equal to their crimes.
