Lautenberg floats plan to require relief wells at offshore drilling sites

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) is floating a bill that would force offshore oil producers to drill so-called relief wells along with their exploration wells, a measure aimed at preventing months-long spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP is currently drilling relief wells to intercept its ruptured deepwater well that’s gushing oil into the Gulf.

The process is expected to permanently end the leak, but it is not slated for completion until some time in August — more than three months after the spill began. Lautenberg said such wells should be in place from the get-go as a precaution when companies drill offshore.

“If relief wells had been in place before the BP rig explosion, the gushing oil could have been stopped in weeks instead of months,” Lautenberg said in a statement, calling his plan a “common-sense step to contain damages that come with the inherently dangerous drilling business.”

Lautenberg has enlisted Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) as a co-sponsor and provided the measure to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who plans to bring a broad energy package to the floor this summer.

The bill would require at least one relief well to be drilled concurrently with any new exploratory or development wells, according to Lautenberg's office.

But major oil companies are pushing back against the idea, which was discussed at a House hearing Tuesday on the BP spill. Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said such a plan would increase the likelihood of accidents.

“I would say you just doubled your risk,” he said before a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel.

“If you look at the history of well-control problems and blow-outs, most of them have occurred on the way down to the objective, not once they reached the objective. They're caused by shallow gas hazards, they're caused by unknown pore pressures on the way down to the objective,” he continued.

“So if you have two wells going down at the same time, it just means you have now increased your risk of having a problem on both of them. I don't think it's a viable nor necessarily a good risk management option to consider,” Tillerson added.