[QUOTE=pumpjack hand;35990]Norway will not allow new drilling in the deepwater areas of the 21st licensing round until there is sufficient knowledge about the Gulf of Mexico blowout and spill, “including possible implications for our regulation,” said Norwegian minister of petroleum and energy [B]Terje Riis-Johansen[/B] on 8 June.
Although the ministry will move forward with the new licensing round, Mr Riis-Johansen emphasized the need for more knowledge about the Gulf incident before awarding new licenses. “The precautionary principle, combined with a predictable framework, have to be the foundation for our petroleum politics,” he said.<<
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Ouch, the effects of this tragedy keep spreading on a daily basis. It does sound like the NPD is following a much more reasonable course of action than the government here in the US though. Seems like a reasonable precaution not to finalize any new licenses until more is known as to the cause of the DWH incident. That way both the NPD & the operators are aware beforehand of any new concerns or requirements and the cost and operational impacts can be agreed upon and taken into account ahead of time instead of having to redesign equipment, operational considerations and well planning in the middle of the project.
IMO The knee-jerk reaction of our government at shutting down all DW drilling & all plans for offshore drilling in the arctic has only escalated the magnitude of this tragedy to epic proportions. Certainly there should be careful evaluations of lessons learned & all new permits should include any new changes found to be necessary, but every rig I have visited since the DWH incident has already been ordered to test & retest all well control & safety equipment to ensure compliance & I would be willing to bet that the well engineers everywhere are being requested to ensure they are not being over ambitious & have been evaluating the well plans for all ongoing operations to incorporate the information which has come to light to date (any input re this from the well engineers here would be very welcome). Any arguements ordiffering viewpoints more than welcome, maybe I am missing something here but to me it seems like maybe our government is going a bit overboard to impress the public at their diligence (seems a day late & a dollar short, but that is just me).