Oil Spill Repair Delayed Yet Again
posted 27th October 2009 in Environment by The Green Man
I don’t know whether to actually call this news anymore. There’s a new announcement from oil company PTTEP Australasia, but the content of that announcement has become old news. After three failed attempts to stop the leaking of up to 2,000 barrels of oil per day from an offshore drilling platform in the Timor Sea, PTTEP delayed its 4th attempt last week, and then again delayed this weekend, and has announced another delay today. Now, PTTEP says that it will try to repair the oil leak later this week, maybe.
What’s the problem? PTTEP spokespeople say that drilling down to repair the oil leak is not an easy thing to do. “We are attempting to steer accurately a relief well through deep, hard rock formations. This has taken longer than expected for technical reasons,” explains the company.
So it’s really difficult to repair oil spills? Oil drilling companies lack the technical skills to stop oil spills, even given two and a half months to work on the problem?
If that’s true, then why are we drilling for oil at all? If no one knows how to stop these oil spills, why are American politicians pushing to have more of these offshore drilling platforms installed along America’s shorelines?
It seems that drilling without adequate technical know how is regarded as standard operating procedure in the oil drilling industry. In spite of the tremendous mess that PTTEP has made out of the Timor Sea already, it was able to purchase yet more drilling rights in the Timor Sea just yesterday.
Tags: australia, energy, fossil fuels, oceans, offshore drilling, oil, oil spill, pollution, PTTEP
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