UK oil chiefs insist deep water drilling safe

The UK oil industry said yesterday that there was “no case” for a moratorium on offshore drilling in deep water in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Industry leaders told MPs investigating the implications of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, amid fears a similar event could occur here, that the regulatory regime in the UK was “very, very strong”.

Malcolm Webb, chief executive officer of industry body Oil and Gas UK said this country’s regulation is “superior” to the US system under which the Deep-water Horizon well was operating when it exploded in April, killing 11 workers and causing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He warned that preventing drilling of wells in the waters of the UK continental shelf would send a very negative message to industry investors who needed to pour £60 billion into exploration and extraction to support UK energy security.

“These investment funds will be prejudiced if the regime is stop-go, switch on, switch off, particularly if there’s no good reason for the switch off,” he told the Energy and Climate Change select committee.

Mr Webb told the MPs there was no case for a moratorium “given the strength of the regulatory regime we have here”.

“Just because an event has happened in another part of the world, doesn’t mean to say a regime such as ours, because that has happened, should stop doing what we’re doing in what I believe is an entirely safe and proper way,” he said.

Paul King, managing director of Transocean, the drilling company operating BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded, killing nine company employees, insisted the firm took safety seriously.

In the wake of a Health and Safety Executive report which contained claims of bullying and intimidation of Transocean employees on offshore rigs, he said the company “cares deeply about the way our people work offshore, and that they work safely”.