WASHINGTON - Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) today sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking whether his department has looked into an ongoing gas leak at a North Sea drilling platform and whether sufficient protections are in place to prevent a similar incident in U.S. waters.
The letter to Interior comes on the same day that Rep. Markey and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) released a report by the Government Accountability Office showing that while some improvements have been made by the oil industry to respond to a subsea blowout of a well, industry technologies and techniques were still inadequate for harsher conditions than the Gulf of Mexico, like Alaska and the Arctic.
The leak began on Sunday, March 25, as workers were closing off a well about 150 miles off the coast of Scotland, in a scenario similar to BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill. The energy company Total, which owns the platform (known as the Elgin platform), did not locate the source of the leak until several days after it occurred and now is preparing to stop it with two relief wells and a plugging operation. There are also fears that the gas, which is more flammable than oil, could catch on fire and cause an explosion and trigger oil in the well to leak.
“As we expand offshore drilling in the United States, we must step up our efforts to prevent incidents like this and to be ready when they occur," said Rep. Markey, who is the Ranking Member on the House Natural Resources Committee. “The Obama administration has strengthened protections to prevent and respond to oil spills after BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. I want to make sure we also have strong protections to prevent and stop gas leaks like the one in the North Sea, and to protect workers and others from offshore gas explosions."
The letter can be found HERE.
