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New Orleans • Oil industry and government officials could get caught flat-footed again by another deep-water blowout in the coming months because they have yet to incorporate many of the lessons learned during the BP disaster, experts inside and outside the business tell The Associated Press.
For one thing, it could be another year before a bigger, better cap-and-siphon containment system is developed to choke off leaks many thousands of feet below the surface. Also, existing skimmers still don't have the capacity to quickly suck up millions of gallons of oil flowing at once.
In interviews with the AP, environmental experts, industry veterans and government officials also said the industry needs better technology and more thorough testing and analysis to prevent blowouts from happening in the first place.
And despite an overhaul of the federal agency that regulates the industry, there are lingering doubts about whether the government can effectively police Big Oil at the same time it relies on the industry for revenue.
"It's going to take five years before all those lessons are fleshed out and can be implemented," warned Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor Ed Overton. The Obama administration's moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is set to expire Nov. 30 and could be lifted even sooner amid pressure from the industry and its allies.
BP signaled last week that it realizes there is still a lot of work to do, firing a top official responsible for deep-water wells. It also welcomed a new CEO on Friday, the first American ever to lead the British company.
Erik Milito, director of upstream and industry operations for the industry group American Petroleum Institute, acknowledged room for improvement. But he insisted that the industry learned from the BP disaster, which began with a rig explosion April 20 that killed 11 workers. The blown-out well spewed more than 200 million gallons of crude before it was finally capped in mid-July.
"If this happens again, the difference will be it will get capped a heck of a lot quicker," Milito said. "It won't take 90 days again." Exxon Mobil Corp. is leading a coalition of oil companies building a one-of-a-kind system to contain an oil leak in up to 10,000 feet of water — twice the depth of the BP blowout. BP recently joined the $1 billion project and agreed to submit the equipment it used to eventually kill its runaway well.
But it could be 16 months before the system is completed, tested and ready to be used.