In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon blowout earlier this year, oil and gas drilling companies across the globe have been forced to examine their own safety practices and measure their preparedness for a similar disaster. The North Sea has been one of the busiest oil and gas drilling zones in the world, and offshore safety here has always been a concern. Norwegian police have now launched an investigation into an oil company after a potentially disastrous near-blowout earlier this year.
According to the Wall Street Journal, police are investigating the oil company Statoil ASA. The investigation comes after the Petroleum Safety Authority in that country described an incident that occurred on the offshore platform Gullfaks C as a near disaster. Statoil had begun drilling the well in November, but drilling had been plagued by numerous incidents. There were at least three incidents when gas got into the well. In May this year, soon after the Gulf of Mexico explosion, the company was forced to partially evacuate the offshore platform after a series of pressure problems in the well.
The Norway Petroleum Safety Authority has investigated that last incident, and has called this incident “very serious.” The agency has concluded that “only luck” prevented that incident from becoming a full scale and disastrous blowout. The Petroleum Safety Authority has also criticized Statoil’s planning for the well as inadequate and full of “deficiencies.” Statoil is now facing the heat from the PSA, which has asked it to investigate why it was not able to identify mistakes during the drilling process.
Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, oil and gas drilling safety has taken on new importance across the globe. This new found zeal for safety is wonderful, but as maritime attorneys, we wish it hadn’t taken the loss of 11 lives and a massive environmental disaster to trigger it.
