HOME PAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS, Print Editions, Newsletter PRODUCTS READ THE PETROLEUM NEWS ARCHIVE! ADVERTISING INFORMATION EVENTS PETROLEUM NEWS BAKKEN MINING NEWS

Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
December 2010

Vol. 15, No. 52 Week of December 26, 2010

Pearce assesses Alaska impacts of OCS regs

At the Law Seminars International Energy in Alaska conference on Dec. 6 Drue Pearce, senior policy advisor with law firm Crowell and Moring, reviewed the possible impacts in Alaska of changes in outer continental shelf regulation by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. As a consequence of new Alaska regulations and a heightened safety awareness following the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, Alaska is in many ways already up to speed in the rigor with which safety and environmental protection is approached, Pearce said. She cited as examples the comprehensive oil discharge prevention and contingency plans used for Alaska offshore drilling, both for wells that have been drilled on the outer continental shelf in the past and for OCS wells that Shell currently plans to drill.

“Alaska law already requires extremely detailed oil discharge and contingency plans, and we in Alaska are frankly already ahead of the game in terms of all these response requirements,” Pearce said.

Whereas a typical Gulf of Mexico contingency plan used to amount to just 50 pages, Shell’s plan for its Beaufort Sea drilling consists of a 384-page document, plus some ancillary plans, she said.

On the other hand, although procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act have not really changed following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, companies can expect a need for much more detailed NEPA-related paperwork, Pearce said. And the listing under the Endangered Species Act of animals such as the polar bear, impacted by receding Arctic sea ice, will trigger new requirements for ESA consultations in association with OCS permitting — the impact of those consultations on offshore activities remains something of an unknown.

—Alan Bailey






Petroleum News - Phone: 1-907 522-9469 - Fax: 1-907 522-9583
[email protected] --- http://www.petroleumnews.com ---
S U B S C R I B E

Copyright Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA)©2013 All rights reserved. The content of this article and web site may not be copied, replaced, distributed, published, displayed or transferred in any form or by any means except with the prior written permission of Petroleum Newspapers of Alaska, LLC (Petroleum News)(PNA). Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties.