BP Seeks "Onshore" Arctic Rig To Evade Offshore Moratorium

You've got to admire the gall of the guys at BP.

Sure, in the last two months since the spill began, they've been smacked with a criminal investigation, a handful of class action lawsuits, and pressured to establish a $20 billion escrow fund on behalf of the Deepwater Horizon victims.

But still, in the midst of all this, they have not learned their lesson.

The New York Times reports that BP hopes to evade an offshore drilling moratorium in the Arctic with new plans to build an "onshore" rig called the Liberty.

By "onshore," BP really means the rig will drill two miles underwater from a location three miles out at sea -- a distance that could break records for long-range drilling. In a bit of wordsmithing, BP is calling the project "onshore" because it plans to build it in the middle of the ocean, atop a 31-acre pile of gravel...built by BP. It argues this "onshore" rig is supposedly safe.

"It makes no sense," said Rebecca Noblin of the Center for Biological Diversity. "BP pushes the envelope in the Gulf and ends up causing the moratorium. And now, in the Arctic, they are forging ahead again with untested technology, and as a result, they're the only ones left being allowed to drill there."

What's worse is that federal regulators allowed the project to sail under the radar for so long. In 2007, regulators stretched protocol to allow BP to conduct its own environmental review, which some scientists now say was deeply flawed.

And BP has invested $200 million in what could become the world's largest land rig, complete with a brand new (read: untested) drill pipe made from steel alloy for long-distance drilling. But John Choe, a drilling expert, said the new technology is likely more dangerous because it could make gas leaks more difficult to detect. "So, you may not detect it until it becomes serious," he said. "In that case, the kick or drilling related problems become too big to be managed easily."

Even the Minerals Management Service agrees. The now-notorious government agency commissioned a 2004 report which found that "a gas kick represents probably the most dangerous situation that can occur when drilling a well," noting that extended-reach projects -- such as BP's Liberty -- "are more prone to kicks and lost-circulation problems than more conventional and vertical wells.

And, meanwhile, Shell Oil has also been getting its creative juices flowing by arguing its designs for an offshore pipeline in the Arctic are safer than BP's technology.

As if the events leading up to the Gulf spill were not enough, BP's Liberty project is yet another indication that federal regulators are too soft on the oil and gas industry. It's time to end this informal alliance, and demand a clean energy future absent of offshore drilling.

Photo credit: Remco Douma