Wrong?
In January, Cuba's national oil company hopes to begin exploratory
offshore drilling in waters deeper than where BP's Deepwater Horizon
operated. If disaster struck the new operation, the danger could be
heightened not only by the site's proximity to Florida and the Gulf
Stream, but also by the diplomatic and economic chill between the U.S.
and Cuba.
By Kalee Thompson
November 2, 2011 1:00 PM
The goal is to find new deep-water oil reservoirs. The tool is Scarabeo
9, an advanced mobile drilling platform that supports a crew of 200 and
can bore more than 9 miles into the ocean floor. The problem is its
destination: Cuba.
Built in China and equipped in Singapore, the Italian-owned Scarabeo 9
is now on its maiden voyage from Asia to the Atlantic. The structure
itself is designed to sustain 100-knot winds and waves almost 90 feet
high, and the mobile platform is stabilized by hulking, submerged
pontoons. Indeed, the rig itself doesn't present unique safety concerns,
but its target—the so-far-untapped oil reserves in deep Cuban
waters—lies less than a hundred miles from the Florida coast. Scarabeo 9
is scheduled to arrive in Cuba by December and begin exploratory
drilling by January, but U.S. officials are hurrying to figure what
could happen, and who would respond, if an oil rig failed so close to
Florida's coast.
Cuba's enormous offshore oil potential, discovered several years ago,
lies in Gulf waters even deeper than those where BP's Deepwater Horizon
operated. Not long after the reserve was found, the Cuban national oil
company, Cubapetroleo, briefed a number of environmental scientists on
the projected aftereffects of the event they hope will never occur: a
large-scale blowout. "Their models showed that 90 percent of an oil
spill would end up in the Florida Straights, which becomes the Gulf
Stream," says David Guggenheim, a marine biologist who has spent more
than a decade working in Florida. A potential spill would hit the most
sensitive areas in the Florida Keys before rounding the east coast of
Florida, and heading farther north. "It's coral reefs; it's mangroves.
Shallow areas that are very sensitive and already have gone through an
incredible degradation over the last few years," Guggenheim says.
"Almost half of that coral reef has died now due to other stresses. This
could be the final blow."
Geography is only part of the problem. More than half a century has
passed since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, which the
State Department considers a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
Disaster-response experts from industry, academia, and government are
all concerned that the political standoff could hinder response should
the worst happen. "To enter Cuban waters as a citizen, you need to have
a license. To send equipment, you need special export licenses. We have
a lot of items that you'd think would be totally innocuous that we
cannot ship," Guggenheim says. The Coast Guard and other U.S. agencies
don't have authorization to operate in a foreign exclusive economic
zone, and it could take hours—or worse, days—after a spill has taken
place just to get that permission. And for a worst-case scenario, that's
just not fast enough. "It's pretty ugly," Guggenheim says. "Those
currents move so fast we would have to react incredibly quickly if we
were going to deploy skimmers, say, to take some oil up."
In the year and a half since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,
advanced planning for future accidents has improved, according to John
Slaughter, chief of planning, readiness, and response for the 7th Coast
Guard District, which includes Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Local stakeholders have developed regional plans to deal with pollution
nearing shore, while organizations such as the Coast Guard are drawing
up separate plans to deal with offshore oil. "When you get into an
offshore environment, it's kind of a new animal," Slaughter says.
"You're talking about offshore skimmers, dispersant use, in situ burning."
The U.S. has a written contingency plan with Mexico that prescribes how
the two nations would work together to respond to an offshore spill. But
as for a spill originating in Cuban seas? "Clearly, there are advantages
in being able to address pollution at its source. We may or may not be
able to do that immediately," Slaughter says. The moment a spill reaches
U.S. waters, though, the green light is on. "We have a robust response
plan put together by the Coast Guard with industry to address any
pollution in U.S. waters."
The Senate held hearings on offshore oil spill response last month; the
House has more scheduled today. But so far there's little evidence that
the U.S. government is interested in working with Cuban authorities. In
the meantime, Scarabeo 9 is making slow progress toward the Caribbean.
Under an agreement with the Spanish company Repsol, which will oversee
the initial drilling, Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEE) inspectors will have a chance to examine the rig before it enters
Cuban waters. (The newly renamed federal agency BOEE was formerly part
of the Mineral Management Service, or MMS.) "Repsol offered to have us
go onboard, and we accepted the opportunity to inspect all the equipment
and relevant documentation," says Lt. Cmdr. Brian Khey, who will be
leading the Coast Guard's two-man inspection team.
Once Scarabeo 9 reaches Cuban waters, however, those inspections will
cease, at least unless there's a thaw in U.S.–Cuban relations. Cuban
authorities are open to working with the U.S., Guggenheim says. But so,
far the people doing the negotiating have been industry reps,
environmentalists, and private citizens, such as former EPA
administrator William Reilly, who visited Cuba as an independent citizen
after his tenure as co-chair of the President's BP Oil Spill Commission
was up. (Among the Commission's recommendations: Strong international
standards and coordinated emergency-response plans.) "What we really
need is a government-to-government meeting," Guggenheim says. "Right now
the government is relying on people like me to serve as a proxy. That
not good enough in an emergency."
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