Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

THE COMMISSIONER: Mr Howe, before you start, let me remind the people in the Commission that if I say I’m starting at 11.20, I mean to start at 11.20.

Amen Commissioner Borthwick!

David Gouldin, Operations Manager for Seadrill Limited (Atlas), was today’s witness.  The transcript is a very interesting read for us operations, regulatory, and safety geeks.  Featured topics included licensee-contractor relationships and responsibilities, what constitutes a barrier in the casing, measuring pressure beneath a corrosion cap, and the root cause cementing and well integrity issues.  Particularly interesting were the discussions about authority and accountability.   In US waters, the lessee/operator is the responsible party for all oil and gas activities on a lease.  This accountability is well established.  This does not appear to be the case in Australia, and Mr. Howe, Counsel for the Inquiry (I continue to be impressed by his preparation and questioning)  suggested “one way of perhaps addressing that is to make it absolutely clear that the licensee can’t outsource safety and ultimate control to anyone.”  I fully agree with that sentiment.  One party must be accountable and that party should be the licensee.