Can offshore drilling be made safe?

[MacQuigg]

Seems to me that we are depending on one piece of equipment, the
blowout preventer, to protect us from a disaster that cannot
tolerate even one in a million chance of happening. We need a plan
that can give us that one in a million assurance, while not depending
so much on any one piece being that reliable. I am not hearing such
a
plan from amyone in the oil industry. We need fresh thinking.
Here are some questions for everyone to ponder?

1) What can we do to improve offshore drilling safety culture (design,
operations, oversight) so that the chance of a blowout is less than
one in 1000 wells? Given the economic, political, and human factors,
is it likely such a culture will survive 30 years?

2) If a blowout does occur, can we have 99.9% assurance the
blowout preventer will shut it down?

3) If for some reason the BOP fails, can we have 99.9% assurance
the rig will not sink?

4) If the rig sinks anyway, and you have a torn pipe spewing oil,
gas,
and hydrates in the worst possible ratio, unknown damage to the
well head and casings, and significant risk of an underground blowout,
can we get a new riser connected quickly, and collecting all the oil?

5) If there is an underground blowout, with oil and gas spewing from
the seafloor, how quickly can you get most of the oil into some kind
of collection system?

6) What if the oil is flowing so fast that the mud from the relief
wells just gets swept away? Is it possible we could have an
unstopable blowout?