Sometimes surprises are great, sometimes they are dreaded. Most businesses do not like surprises and it looks like the Minerals Management Service (MMS) decided that they would not surprise the offshore oil drilling companies very often.
The Wall Street Journal, which has done an excellent reporting job on the BP oil spill, analyzed data compiled by MMS with regards to inspection of deep water drilling rigs. What they found was that as the number of deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico increased, the number of surprise inspections of these wells decreased. This was particularly true with the platforms; in 2000 MMS made 34 surprise inspections of platforms, one in 2004 and none since. The number of surprise inspections of the rigs was not as bad, but pretty irresponsible; in the period 2000 - 2009, the most surprise inspections of rigs in a year was 15, in three of the years there were no surprise inspections.
How many surprises will the new MMS have in store for the deepwater dilling companies over the next year?
The Wall Street Journal, which has done an excellent reporting job on the BP oil spill, analyzed data compiled by MMS with regards to inspection of deep water drilling rigs. What they found was that as the number of deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico increased, the number of surprise inspections of these wells decreased. This was particularly true with the platforms; in 2000 MMS made 34 surprise inspections of platforms, one in 2004 and none since. The number of surprise inspections of the rigs was not as bad, but pretty irresponsible; in the period 2000 - 2009, the most surprise inspections of rigs in a year was 15, in three of the years there were no surprise inspections.
How many surprises will the new MMS have in store for the deepwater dilling companies over the next year?
No comments:
Post a Comment