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Chevron Drilling Oil Well in 8,530 Feet of Water, Says it Doesn't Need Relief Well

Images: Google Maps & Chevron

Everything will be fine, trust us
If 5,000 feet is deep enough to make it very hard to fix any problems with an oil well, it would seem that 8,530 feet would deep enough to warrant extraordinary precautions (if you're going to be drilling at all, not something I'm in favor of). But Chevron, who's drilling a well at this depth off the coast of Newfoundland says that a relief well isn't necessary (even though a relief well could probably have avoided the Deepwater Horizon disaster).

Flag of Newfoundland & Labrador

Mark MacLeod, Chevron's Atlantic Manager, said: "We believe all wells can be drilled incident free. We believe this well will be drilled incident free and we won't need a relief well."

Well, you can believe what you want Mark, but the facts are that not all wells are incident free, and that when there's an incident, it can ben so bad as to negate anything that was gained by skimping on extra safety measures.

Canadian regulators have asked Chevron to take extra precautions (more tests on the blowout preventer, etc), but that's not enough. The last thing we need is a repeat of the BP Gulf Spill in the North of the Atlantic.

Do the right thing, Chevron (and if you won't regulators should make you - even if the risks of an incident are low, the impact is so high...).

Via Reuters

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