BP Vice President: Offshore Drilling Safe

On Nov. 19, 2009, BP's David Rainey assured everybody that offshore drilling is safe.   See JOTMAN.COM for a timeline of the oil spill disaster.

David Rainey is testifying that "offshore drilling" is safe because it has been "going on for fifty years."




Rainey's statement is misleading.  "Fifty year's experience" applies to shallow-water offshore drilling. Offshore drilling at extreme depths is a new development that involves the use of relatively untested and experimental technologies.    As one scientist puts it:

And "everything is bigger and more difficult the deeper you go," said Andy Bowen, a research specialist who works with undersea robotics at the Woods Hole center. "Fighting gravity is tough. It increases loads. You need bigger winches, bigger cables, bigger ships."

An analogy, he said, is the difference between construction work on the ground versus at the top of a mile-high skyscraper.

BP does not have fifty years experience extremely deep wells in very deep water.  To assume the challenges of safely undertaking such work were surmounted in the previous fifty years is presumptuous to say the least.