HOUSTON, June 18 (Reuters) - The chief executive of the company providing BP with critical oil-capturing equipment at the Gulf of Mexico oil leak says the industry needs a rapid-response plan in case a similar disaster happens in the future.
Owen Kratz, CEO of Helix Energy Solutions, said in an interview he was trying to drum up support from the industry and government to develop a plan that identifies assets that could respond quickly to a spill.
In addition, the same kinds of equipment manufactured after the fact to respond to the BP leak could be made ahead of time and placed along the U.S. Gulf Coast so it would be immediately available if needed, he said.
'Now we have the assets. Let's build on those,' Kratz said in the interview on Thursday.
Those assets include a series of huge steel caps BP has had manufactured to place on the leak to try to contain the oil. One of those caps has been on the leak since June 3, and it is due to be replaced by another at the end of June that will allow vessels to disconnect quickly and move if a hurricane approaches.
Others include floating pipes that connect BP's seabed oil- capturing systems to vessels at the water's surface that either collect or burn off the crude.
'We could have it engineered and fabricated, ready to go in the event that this would happen again,' Kratz said.
Kratz said he was visiting congressional committees and industry groups in Washington next week to solicit support for the idea.
He said it was 'spot-on' to assume the industry might have seen no need for such a plan before the BP disaster. That thinking had likely changed now, he said.
'There are a lot of problems with this ad-hoc response,' Kratz said. 'We could have all the accouterment stored and at the ready.'
Helix owns the Q4000, a service rig that burning off nearly 10,000 barrels a day (420,000 gallons/1.6 million litres) of oil siphoned from the leak. BP started up the Q4000 on Wednesday to add more oil-handling capability to its leak containment system.
It is an addition to a containment cap system that is channeling more than 16,000 barrels a day to Transocean Ltd's Discoverer Enterprise drillship a mile (1.6 km) above the leak at the water's surface.
Helix also owns the Producer 1, another rig that will provide up to 25,000 barrels a day of oil processing capacity. The Q4000 burns off oil because it has no storage or processing capability.
The Helix Producer is slated to start up at the end of June and, with the Q4000 and Enterprise, provide up to 53,000 barrels a day of capacity to process or burn off captured oil.
(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Peter Cooney)
((For more spill stories, see http://link.reuters.com/hed87k)) Keywords: OIL SPILL/HELIX (kristen.hays@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713-210-8538; Reuters Messaging: kristen.hays.reuters.com@reuters.) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
Owen Kratz, CEO of Helix Energy Solutions, said in an interview he was trying to drum up support from the industry and government to develop a plan that identifies assets that could respond quickly to a spill.
In addition, the same kinds of equipment manufactured after the fact to respond to the BP leak could be made ahead of time and placed along the U.S. Gulf Coast so it would be immediately available if needed, he said.
'Now we have the assets. Let's build on those,' Kratz said in the interview on Thursday.
Those assets include a series of huge steel caps BP has had manufactured to place on the leak to try to contain the oil. One of those caps has been on the leak since June 3, and it is due to be replaced by another at the end of June that will allow vessels to disconnect quickly and move if a hurricane approaches.
Others include floating pipes that connect BP's seabed oil- capturing systems to vessels at the water's surface that either collect or burn off the crude.
'We could have it engineered and fabricated, ready to go in the event that this would happen again,' Kratz said.
Kratz said he was visiting congressional committees and industry groups in Washington next week to solicit support for the idea.
He said it was 'spot-on' to assume the industry might have seen no need for such a plan before the BP disaster. That thinking had likely changed now, he said.
'There are a lot of problems with this ad-hoc response,' Kratz said. 'We could have all the accouterment stored and at the ready.'
Helix owns the Q4000, a service rig that burning off nearly 10,000 barrels a day (420,000 gallons/1.6 million litres) of oil siphoned from the leak. BP started up the Q4000 on Wednesday to add more oil-handling capability to its leak containment system.
It is an addition to a containment cap system that is channeling more than 16,000 barrels a day to Transocean Ltd's Discoverer Enterprise drillship a mile (1.6 km) above the leak at the water's surface.
Helix also owns the Producer 1, another rig that will provide up to 25,000 barrels a day of oil processing capacity. The Q4000 burns off oil because it has no storage or processing capability.
The Helix Producer is slated to start up at the end of June and, with the Q4000 and Enterprise, provide up to 53,000 barrels a day of capacity to process or burn off captured oil.
(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Peter Cooney)
((For more spill stories, see http://link.reuters.com/hed87k)) Keywords: OIL SPILL/HELIX (kristen.hays@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713-210-8538; Reuters Messaging: kristen.hays.reuters.com@reuters.) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.