The principals of the Ocean Saratoga, the rig that will very soon begin oil drilling for Repsol YPF off Guyana’s coast, have refuted a statement which appeared in this newspaper’s satirical column ‘The Tantalizer’, which was published on January 23, 2012.
The company, Diamond Offshore Drilling, through its local representatives Guyenterprise Advertising Agency, wrote a letter to this newspaper pointing out that the statement about the company’s rig being involved in an oil spill was not factual. The company maintains it was involved in plugging abandoned wells damaged by Hurricane Ivan back in 2004.
The company through its local representatives directed this newspaper to a press release issued on June 8, 2010 in response to concerns that had been raised about the company’s rig being involved in a spill.
“Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. today (June 8, 2010) confirmed that there have been no leaks of hydrocarbons from the semisubmersible drilling rig Ocean Saratoga. The rig is under contract to Taylor Energy Company LLC and engaged in the process of plugging and abandoning wells damaged when a Taylor Energy production platform was toppled during Hurricane Ivan in 2004,” the release said.
The company said that the well intervention programme at Mississippi Canyon Block 20 was the result of the destruction of a production platform caused by a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan.
“The platform was toppled by a subsurface mud slide triggered by storm surges with 100 foot waves.
As reported by Taylor Energy, the wells were covered by more than 100 feet of mud and sediment and only four wells were capable of production without pressure assistance,” the company said in the release.
It said that the associated surface sheen was minimal and never made landfall. “As a result of deploying three subsurface containment domes and performing six successful well interventions, the initial average observed sheen volume of nine gallons per day has been substantially reduced,” the company said.
The release said that at the time, unidentified aircraft took photos that incorrectly depicted an oil leak coming from the drilling rig Ocean Saratoga.
“At the time of these photos, Taylor Energy was actually conducting marine operations on site with a 180 foot dynamically positioned workboat for regularly scheduled subsea containment system drainage. The tanks mistakenly characterized as containing dispersants on the boat’s deck, were actually tanks to store and transport the collected oil as it was pumped from the underwater storage system,” the release said.
