Today marks one year since the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It is a sad anniversary, most of all for the families of the 11 men who died in the incident. Our sympathy goes out to them.
On this day we also recognize those whose livelihoods, communities, and economies were damaged due to the spill and subsequent moratorium.
As those of us in the industry look back, we know that this isn’t the standard by which we operate our business. In the 14,000 deepwater wells the industry has drilled worldwide, we know that when you follow established procedures and best practices, incidents like the Deepwater Horizon should not happen.
And while it wasn’t a “systemic” failure by regulators and the industry, as some have claimed, the incident did make it clear the industry had a greater role to play in spill response preparedness.
That’s why ExxonMobil led an unprecedented multi-company effort to build the Marine Well Containment System in the months following the spill. This system, which can be deployed within 24 hours in the event of a deepwater well-control incident in the Gulf of Mexico, is already up and running in an interim capacity and will be fully completed in 2012.
To ensure we never need this response system, the oil and gas industry is working with government agencies to identify and implement best practices at every well. These findings and other processes will be formalized through the creation of the Center for Offshore Safety, the first-ever industry-wide organization focused entirely on U.S. offshore and deepwater safety.
As a result of these and other efforts, we know that the Gulf of Mexico resources can be developed safely for the benefit of American consumers and America’s energy security. Gulf resources account for 30 percent of all U.S. oil production and support more than 170,000 American jobs. And, just as the Gulf is vital to U.S. energy, deepwater is vital to the Gulf; in 2009, deepwater accounted for more than 80 percent of all Gulf oil production.
As President Obama noted in his speech on energy a few weeks ago, no one has forgotten the lessons of the BP Deepwater Horizon incident. I am sure that no one will ever forget what happened in the Gulf of Mexico 12 months ago today.
