In September 2009, an environmental investigator submitted a 60-page report on the risks of deepwater drilling as a public comment to the federal government’s proposed rule for oil and gas leasing between 2010 and 2015 on the outer continental shelf. Addressed to the chief of the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) leasing division, this memorandum highlighted the risks of the drilling, with a specific focus on methane hydrates:
The primary cause of blowouts, spills and uncontrolled releases of gases from offshore operations is drilling into methane hydrates, or through them into free gas trapped below
Using material published by the MMS (accident investigations, etc), there were at least 39 blowouts between 1992 and 2006 with the drilling of nearly 2,500 deepwater wells (three times the number over the previous 20 years). As the impacts of these blowouts were declining, the internal MMS analysis actually pointed to falling human casualties as a positive sign encouraging continued (expanded) drilling.
In terms of response to the 60 page report … the sound of crickets. That is, at least until now.
For an excellent and far more detailed discussion of this report, see David Sassoon, Solve Climate, Investigator Warned MMS in 2009 About Deepwater Gas Blowouts in Gulf of Mexico.
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