BSEE oversees Shell capping stack test

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has overseen the testing of the well capping stack that Shell plans to deploy in support of its Chukchi Sea drilling operations this summer, the agency said June 18. The capping stack is a piece of technology designed to fit onto a wellhead, to stem the flow of oil from an out-of-control well should both the primary and backup blowout preventers for the well fail.

Shell plans to carry the capping stack on the M/V Fennica, ready for responding to a well loss-of-control incident within 24 hours.

BSEE said that the agency’s Alaska Region Director Mark Fesmire oversaw the testing of the capping stack system in Puget Sound on the U.S. West Coast, to ensure that the device meets regulatory safety standards for offshore Arctic oil drilling. BSEE personnel watched an exercise in which the Fennica deployed the stack in 150 feet of water, a water depth greater than that at Shell’s planned Chukchi Sea drilling sites. During two separate exercises spanning two days, the capping stack functioned correctly under pressures exceeding the maximum pressures that Shell anticipates when drilling, BSEE said.

BSEE said it is currently reviewing Shell’s applications for permits to drill two exploration wells in the Chukchi this year. The agency also said that it is overseeing additional on-water oil spill response exercises and drills, as well as anticipating carrying out on-site inspections of spill response equipment during the drilling season. Some equipment inspection and deployment exercises, designed to validate compliance with approved plans and permits, will be unannounced, BSEE said.

- Alan Bailey