Offshore oil drilling how does it work

Before new leases could be awarded in state waters, the state Legislature would have to pass a bill lifting the current ban, and the governor would have to sign it into law. According to Consumer Watchdog and the Pittsburgh-based research firm Fractracker Alliance, the state has issued permits for reworking offshore rigs since Jan.

Five additional permits in that period allow the drilling of new wells. In state waters, the Geological Energy Management Division, part of the California Department of Conservation, regulates all oil and gas operations. In federal waters off the coast of California, the responsibility falls on the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement , part of the Interior Department.

Its work has been hindered by a staffing shortage and outdated regulations. Although the companies that own and operate their oil and gas facilities are in charge of the safety of their employees and pollution prevention, the bureau monitors compliance. According to the bureau , its inspectors are on site at least once a week, overseeing drilling and production operations on unannounced routine inspections.

There is also an extensive annual inspection of each facility that can last two to three weeks, depending on the complexity of the facility.

How a coast crowded with ships, port gridlock and an anchor may have caused O. A final determination for the cause of the spill may take months, but Coast Guard investigators have come up with no other explanation than anchor drag, federal sources said.

Of the 23 facilities, 22 produce oil and gas, while the remaining one is a processing facility. The state and federal government both have the power to force wells within their jurisdictions to cease operating under certain circumstances if needed to protect the public. Doing so to a well that was still producing oil, however, could cost the taxpayers a bundle.

Federal law authorizes the secretary of the Interior to suspend and, eventually, cancel an offshore lease or permit in the case of a serious threat to human or aquatic life, property, the environment or national security.

But the law also entitles the lease holder to be compensated for lost profits, which could be enormous for a productive well. Sivas, a professor of environmental law at Stanford Law School. State agencies hold similar authority over platforms and pipelines in state waters; in fact, their authority over pipelines and the coastal zone in general could conceivably be used to regulate aging platforms in federal waters, said Richard Charter of the Ocean Foundation.

Still, the state would face a fight over future earnings if it forced an operator to close a productive platform, Sivas said. Even when the operator shutters an old platform voluntarily, the cost can be significant. And there are provisions in both federal and state rules for lease holders to offer financial assurances that they can pay the costs, typically by posting bonds. Whether those bonds will actually cover the cost of shutting down a platform is an open question.

Michael Salman, professor emeritus of history at UCLA, noted a number of factors that could leave taxpayers on the hook for decommissioning costs, including performance bonds being disputed or insufficient. Bankruptcies are an issue too, he said, noting that many offshore platforms developed by major, deep-pocketed oil companies have been sold to much smaller operators as they aged.

California lawmakers demand more info from two federal agencies on massive oil spill. Yes, both in state and federal law. Under AB by then-Assemblymember now Sen.

And the Golden State made history in when oil extraction from the ocean began from piers near Santa Barbara. A Union Oil Co. It was the worst oil spill in American waters until the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in Following is a description of 7 most common types of platforms. A Fixed Platform FP consists of a jacket a tall vertical section made of tubular steel members supported by piles driven into the seabed with a deck placed on top, providing space for crew quarters, a drilling rig, and production facilities.

The fixed platform is economically feasible for installation in water depths up to 1, feet meters. A Compliant Tower CT consists of a narrow, flexible tower and a piled foundation that can support a conventional deck for drilling and production operations.

Unlike the fixed platform, the compliant tower withstands large lateral forces by sustaining significant lateral deflections, and is usually used in water depths between 1, and 2, feet and meters. A Mini-Tension Leg Platform Mini-TLP or Sea Star SStar is a floating mini-tension leg platform of relatively low cost developed for production of smaller deep water reserves which would be uneconomic to produce using more conventional deep water production systems.

It can also be used as a utility, satellite, or early production platform for larger deep water discoveries. A Floating Production Systems FPS is a semisubmersible drilling rig containing petroleum production equipment, as well as drilling equipment. Ships can also be used as floating production systems. The platforms can be kept in place through large, heavy anchors, or through the dynamic positioning system used by drill ships.

With a floating production system, the wellhead is actually attached to the seafloor once the drilling is completed, rather than being attached up to the platform. See rig basics. Offshore wells are drilled in much the same way as their onshore counterparts-with several allowances for the offshore environment. A conduit made from lengths of steel pipe permits drilling fluids to move between the rig-at the water's surface-and the sea floor. This conduit is called a "riser.

The well is drilled using a length of slender steel pipes and other tools that, connected, comprise a "drill string.

Each ordinary pipe in the string is about 30 feet long and weighs about pounds; drill collars can weigh 4, Pounds or more per foot length. As drilling proceeds, and the well gets deeper, the drilling crew adds new sections of drill pipe to the ever-lengthening drill string. Hydraulic devices keep constant tension on the drill string to prevent the motion of the rig and riser from being transmitted to the drill bit.

The drill string is lowered through the riser to the sea floor, passing through a system of safety valves called a "blowout preventer" BOP, pronounced "B. This stack of multiple safety valves is designed to contain any natural pressures that the drillers might encounter beneath the Earth's surface.

Its purpose is to prevent a possible "blowout"-an uncontrolled eruption of oil, gas or wellbore fluids due to excessive natural pressure.