The following set of answers to the above question regarding BP (LON:BP.) and the future of the oil and gas industry are taken from this month's 'Drilling and Dealers' Magazine published by the Oil Council which is available for download here.
“There are two components to consider, political and technical. Based on past experience, only very few politicians will let the opportunity (feeding frenzy) pass to create enormous spectacles, to arrange theatrical show cases and hearings, and to call loudly for a full range of legislative and regulatory actions from "punishment with extra taxes? all the way to totally banning any offshore drilling and production in US territorial waters. Therefore, we can expect a considerable and burdening legislative, regulatory and fiscal impact resulting from this political “Schlachtfest”.
On the technical side every catastrophic failure, especially those in technological frontiers, has always led to tremendous efforts to find the causes of such failures and to expeditiously develop new processes, procedures, superior materials and products to safeguard against repetition (e.g. Spaceships "Challenger? and "Columbia? and the "Piper Alpha? Platform events).Therefore, tremendous progress can be expected in the much better understanding of the peculiarities of the highly challenging frontier environment of deep sea drilling and production, especially in the area of temperatures, pressures, the total absence of – or highly restricted – visibility, and extraordinary difficulty in performing mechanical tasks, and the subsequent development of new technologies, materials, approaches, processes, as well as, internal and external guidelines.
Then there is the "Industry Impact?. Almost every company will undertake all reasonable and feasible efforts to review and update their processes, policies, procedures, guidelines and applied technologies to effectively reflect protection against catastrophic failures like the one that happened to BP (LON:BP.) . The experience of this spill and its enormity also could (and should!) lead to an industry-wide task force to coordinate the progress in effective technologies and applications in operations in highly volatile and hostile environments, as well as, the establishment of an industry-wide emergency response task force. „Industry? in this regards would include the Oil & Gas Industry and the Oil & Gas Service and Equipment companies, all enhanced by the inclusion of the respective Federal and State organizations.”... Franz Ehrhardt, CEO, CASCA Consulting LLC (Oil Council Committee Member)
“The…
