Salazar holds international safety forum

On April 14 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar convened an international forum in Washington, D.C., to discuss ways in which the risks associated with offshore drilling can be reduced. The forum’s focus was strengthening capabilities to contain potential deepwater oil and gas well blowouts, and the development of global solutions for offshore blowout containment systems, the Department of Interior said in announcing the forum.

Ministers and senior officials from 12 nations and the European Union were scheduled to attend the forum, with the represented countries all having offshore oil and gas interests, Interior said. Countries represented included Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom and Russia, Interior said.

Featured participants in interactive discussions were scheduled to include William Reilly, co-chair of the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling; Don Winter, chair of the Analysis of the Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire and Oil Spill Committee; and Martin Hoffman, deputy secretary of Australia’s Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. James Dupree, BP regional president for the Gulf of Mexico; Owen Kratz, president and CEO of offshore contractor, Helix Energy Solutions; Malcolm Webb, CEO of Oil & Gas UK; and Thomas Hunter, chair of the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee were scheduled to participate in a discussion of next generation well containment technologies.

—Alan Bailey