Administration to inspect oil rig set to drill in Cuban waters

Amid growing concerns that foreign offshore drilling could threaten coastal areas in the United States, the Obama administration said Tuesday it plans to inspect an oil rig that is slated to begin drilling in Cuban waters early next year.

Michael Bromwich, the Obama administration’s top offshore drilling regulator, told a Senate committee that the Interior Department and U.S. Coast Guard have an agreement with Spanish oil giant Repsol to inspect its rig before it reaches Cuban waters.

“We, together with the Coast Guard, at Repsol’s invitation, plan to conduct an inspection of this rig,” Bromwich said during a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Repsol will use a semi-submersible mobile rig called Scarabeo 9 to begin drilling in Cuban waters in January of next year. Bromwich, the director of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), said administration officials are intimately familiar with the design of the rig, as well as its ability to prevent blowouts.

“We will do all available and possible inspections,” Bromwich said.

Officials will inspect the rig before it enters Cuban waters because of the United States’s relationship with Cuba, Bromwich said.

The Obama administration and lawmakers in Congress are keeping a watchful eye on Cuba’s plans to move forward with offshore drilling in its waters amid concerns that an oil spill could spread to Florida and other coastal areas. The Florida Keys, for example, are fewer than 100 miles from Cuba.

“The actions of our marine neighbors are important to consider as well,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said, noting that it’s also important to ensure other nearby countries like the Bahamas and Mexico are drilling safely. “As people have already said, oil spills do not respect our boundaries.”

The Interior Department has been working closely with Repsol since February to ensure that they will meet new safety and environmental standards imposed by the Obama administration in the aftermath of last year’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“Repsol officials have made it clear that in carrying out its exploratory drilling plans in Cuban waters, it will adhere to U.S. regulations and the highest industry standards,” Bromwich said at the hearing Tuesday.

BSEE recently worked with Repsol on a spill response exercise in Trinidad.

“During the exercise, Repsol’s spill management team mobilized to respond to a hypothetical spill and demonstrated response equipment deployment capabilities,” Bromwich said.

In the event of an oil spill in Cuban waters that threatens the United States, the Obama administration “would mount an immediate response,” Vice Admiral Brian Salerno, deputy commandant for operations at the Coast Guard, said at the hearing Tuesday.

The Coast Guard would “focus on combating the spill offshore using all available response tactics,” Salerno said, noting that a response would “require a unity of effort across all areas of government, industry and the private sector.”