Do Malaysians think the blowup and subsequent 'largest oil spill in USA' will only happen in deep water drilling (The BP drilling was at 1,500m depth)? Do Malaysians think that our oil drillings in 30-80m depth offshore Malaysia will NEVER meet the same fate as BP?Are Malaysians not concern that similar blow up CAN occur in Malaysian water and the subsequent spill will spoil our beloved beaches in east coast Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah?
In August 2009, there was a blow-out at the West Atlas rig drilling in about 80m water depth (same as Malaysia) in the Timur Sea. The operator was PTTEP, Thai's national oil/gas company while the contractor was the same one which worked the Deepwater Horizon Rig for BP. Oil spilled out from the 80m depth at rate of about 2,000 barrel per day for 10 weeks. The well was finally cut-off in January 2010, the spill stopped but both Indonesia and Timur Leste till todate still has to bear the consequences of the spilled oil. Investigation of the Timur Sea's blow-out revealed similar faults as those that caused the BP's blow out (see Forbes June 2010 June issue). These faults are the bad maintenance on the 'blowout preventer, BOP' and also process in cementing the hole.
As this contractor is the world expert in drilling, he may be presently doing similar jobs for many on-going drillings in Malaysia!!
I hope PETRONAS experts have pulled up their sleeves in managing the contractor or get the 'right expert to manage the expert'. We want our future Malaysians to enjoy the same beautiful beaches without the oil patches
