Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams said he will be shooting for technology that will soon enable the regulatory body to know how much fluid is lost during the event of an accident offshore.
The official made this statement following a mud spill incident that occurred with Spanish operator, Repsol on the Kanuku Block. During drilling operations it was carrying out via contractor Valaris last month, 84 barrels of mud was spilt into the ocean. Dr. Adams acknowledged that the EPA was unable to verify this independently. The EPA therefore had to accept whatever the company said.
The EPA Head said, “During the drilling of one of the wells on the block, you had mud that was coming up from a valve that was somehow left open and spilling into the ocean. Fortunately, someone caught it early or else we would have had a disaster. Of course we investigated it, identified the root causes, brought in the drilling company called Valaris as well as Repsol and we fined them both $1M each. They have 28 days to pay up.”
The official added, “But we will shoot for technology that will help measure the spill, calculate the amount of fluid lost.”
In this day and age of technology, Dr. Adams said there is no reason why the EPA should not have this ability at its finger tips.
