BP Deepwater Horizon is not a US well [View All]

[Robbien]

The platform is governed by maritime law and belongs under the regulatory jurisdiction of the country under which it is flagged. BP Deepwater Horizon is flagged under the Republic of Marshall Islands.

Oil rig operated under a patchwork of authority

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/OILSPILL-AUTHORITY-EXCLUSIVE_2596981/OILSPILL-AUTHORITY-EXCLUSIVE_2596981/

WASHINGTON — The Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico was built in South Korea. It was operated by a Swiss company under contract to a British oil firm. Primary responsibility for safety and other inspections rested not with the U.S. government but with the Republic of the Marshall Islands — a tiny, impoverished nation in the Pacific Ocean.

And the Marshall Islands, a maze of tiny atolls — some smaller than the ill-fated oil rig — outsourced many of its responsibilities to private companies.

Now, as the government tries to figure out what went wrong in the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, this international patchwork of divided authority and sometimes conflicting priorities is emerging as a critical underlying factor in the crisis.

Under international law, offshore oil rigs like the Deepwater Horizon are treated as ships, not real estate. Even though the well spewing millions of gallons of oil from the ocean floor is located in U.S.-protected waters, oil companies are allowed to "register" the rigs that operate there with unlikely places such as the Marshall Islands, Panama and Liberia — reducing the U.S. government's role in inspecting and enforcing safety and other standards.

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This comes up now because the Coast Guard is taking this opportunity to highlight their need for more money both for current operations and proposed extended duties. The Coast Guard has consistently seen its budget cut year after year. :

Coast Guard: Money needed for new inspection duty
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20100617_ap_coastguardmoneyneededfornewinspectionduty.html


WASHINGTON - The Coast Guard will need more money, manpower and training to conduct inspections if Congress decides to limit oil drilling in U.S. coastal waters to U.S.-flagged ships and drilling rigs, a Coast Guard official said Thursday.

Rear Adm. Kevin Cook, director of prevention policy, said the Coast Guard's resources for inspecting U.S.-flagged ships were stretched thin before the oil spill crisis. Most of the inspection responsibilities for foreign-flagged ships falls to the country where they are registered.

The Coast Guard has only 69 inspectors qualified to inspect deep-water drilling rigs like Deepwater Horizon, the BP rig that failed two months ago, Cook said. That rig was flagged by the Marshall Islands and is owned by Transocean Ltd., based in Switzerland.

"We would like to have more inspectors even for the current workload," Cook testified at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "We are doing some improvisation to make it all work."

There are 275 oil rigs involved in U.S. offshore drilling, at least 80 of which are foreign-flagged, according to information the Coast Guard and the Congressional Research Service supplied the committee. Among the countries flagging the rigs are Panama, Liberia, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu, a volcanic island chain in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Most of the rigs are in the Gulf of Mexico, although a few are off the coast of Alaska and in other U.S. waters.

There are 442 other vessels that service and supply rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 60 of which are foreign-flagged.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the committee, said he wants to "Americanize" ships and rigs involved in oil drilling in the U.S. economic zone, which extends from the coast to 200 miles offshore. He said ships are being foreign-flagged because the companies that operate them don't want to have to meet U.S. safety and labor standards.

"The question is what capability does the Coast Guard have now to do all those inspections?" Oberstar asked.

"We'd have to invest in people and training," Cook replied. "Right now it would be a challenge to identify exactly what that additional workload would be."

Warren Weaver, Transocean's manager of regulatory compliance, said the company's decision to foreign flag oil rigs was "strictly logistical." He said the rigs, which are inspected by the countries where they are flagged, meet or exceed international standards.

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Many of these foreign flagged rigs in US waters are registered in The Republic of Marshall Islands. A Republic which has no money. "rigs, which are inspected by the countries where they are flagged, meet or exceed international standards"

Really?