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Four oil majors are to spend a total of $1 billion developing a rapid-response oil spill containment system designed to prevent the kind of environmental damage caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster happening again.
Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, ExxonMobil and Shell have combined to build a system capable of capturing and containing oil in the event of an underwater well blowout.
The system will be used in depths up to 10,000 feet and will have an initial containment capacity of 100,000 barrels per day. It will be used only in the Gulf of Mexico and could be mobilised within 24 hours for use on a range of well designs and equipment, and oil and natural gas flow rates.
The four companies will form a non-profit organisation, the Marine Well Containment Company, to operate and maintain the system. Other companies will be encouraged to participate in the new organisation.
John Watson, chief executive officer of Chevron, said: “We are committed to advancing safe operations through enhanced prevention, better well containment and intervention and improved spill response. This system significantly enhances the industry’s ability to effectively respond to any unforeseen incidents.”
But Rex Tillerson, chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, said that if the industry did its job properly, the system would never need to be used.
“The extensive experience of industry shows that when the focus remains on safe operations and risk management, tragic incidents like the one we are witnessing in the Gulf of Mexico should not occur.”
The partners said the system will be pre-engineered, constructed, tested and ready for rapid deployment. The new system will be ready for operation within 18 months.
Its subsea assembly will include a connector and seal to prevent oil from escaping into the water, as well as adapters and connectors to interact with interface points such as the wellhead, blowout preventer stack, lower marine riser package and casing strings.
The assembly will be designed to prevent hydrate formation and blockage. Capture caisson assemblies will be built to enclose a damaged connector or leak outside the well casing.
The oil would flow through flexible pipe to a riser assembly, and both the pipe and umbilical will be designed to quickly disconnect in the event of a hurricane.
Surface vessels will process, store and offload the oil to shuttle tankers for onshore processing.