Consortium to build one billion deep water containment system

Word on the Bloomberg news site has it that Exxon, Chevron, Shell and Conoco-Phillips are investing $250 billion dollars each to build a deep water containment system that will be able to operate and contain underwater leaks as deep as 3050 meters (10,000 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico. Story here.

Is this collusion?...

According to the story, the system will be able to handle spills of close to 100,000 barrels per day and become part of any offshore deep water drilling program. It will involve piping the oil and gas to topside vessels to contain the spilled oil or gas. The system is said to be possibly adaptable to other areas where deep sea drilling is ongoing.

The story does not say if vessels designed for this use will be available at a few days notice or if they will be already on stand by at the drill site should an accident occur. It still makes one wonder what are the repercussions of not having such a system in place here in Canadian coastal waters, in particularly the Orphan Basin where the waters are 2800 meters, close to 9500 feet deep.

Do you think that Big Oil may be feeling the heat from politicians to erase any doubt about deep sea drilling? After the Gulf of Mexico disaster, do you think that voters might be having some influence over what government is deciding?

My personal opinion?...

This is an attempt to deflect any government from instituting any freeze on deep-sea drilling until safer drilling methods, and the cause for the Gulf disaster, have come forth. The United States and the European Union are already taking steps for a hiatus to deep sea drilling.

Of note here: It's awfully funny that they can collude to share a deep sea response like this but they can't share their clean-up strategy on the east coast of Canada, off Newfoundland and Labrador in the interests of company secrecy...

I'll be in touch!

Regards,

George