boffert sea is where bp is pursuing one of its most ambitious drilling plans ever, undeterred by its disastrous still in the gulf of mexico. the arctic project is called liberty. it s not covered by the government s temporary ban on deep water drilling because the rig is on an artificial island made of gravel, an island developed by bp just a couple of miles from shore. so technically it s not deep water. only about 2 feet from surface to floor. but then bp plans on drilling another two miles down into the earth, then angling horizontally you think six to eight miles to hit the liberty reservoir where the company believes there s more than 100 million barrels of oil. this is called extended reach drilling. this will be done before, but never this far. and there s debate over the risks. a 2004 document from the federal mineral management service said erd wells are more prone to kicks and lost-circulation problems than more conventional and vertical wells. that occurs when drilling mud
to marine conservationist rick steiner, who joins us from anchorage. good evening. how are you? more diskournlgcouraged on t the new drilling method, frequent gas kicks, put extra pressure on pipes and well casings. does that sound like the drilling that s already happening all over the world? well, yeah. extended reach drilling has gone on in various places throughout the world. there s no question about that. because there hasn t been a catastrophic blowout doesn t mean that one cannot occur. i mean, look back three or four months on the deepwater horizon and all the deepwater drilling in the gulf of mexico. until then, until deepwater horizon blew up, they had a pretty good safety record out there until they didn t. the same thing with 8,700 tanker trips out of prince william
blew up, they had a pretty good safety record out there. until they didn t. the same thing with 8,700 tanker trips out of prince william sound, fully loaded with oil. everything went fine, until the one that didn t. the same thing can happen with extended reach drilling. and i think it certainly violates the intent, if not the letter, of the moratorium that was placed on offshore drilling in the arctic, and in the deep gulf, as well. as in the gulf, mms has allowed bp to write its own environmental report in alaska. certainly that part of this can be overturned, can t it? or is the whole thing because it s been handed to bp and the right to do this, is this out of governmental control at this point? well, what s that old adage, history, if ignored, tends to repeat itself. and unless we use the lessons of the deepwater horizon disaster, and apply them to all offshore drilling, including and particularly the liberty project
reachwells doesn t mean that one cannot occur. i mean, look back three or four months on the deepwater horizon, and all the deep water drilling in the gulf of mexico, and until then until deepwater horizon blew up, they had a pretty good safety record out there. until they didn t. the same thing with 8,700 tanker trips out of prince william sound, fully loaded with oil. everything went fine, until the one that didn t. the same thing can happen with extended reach drilling. and i think it certainly violates the intent, if not the letter, of the moratorium that was placed on offshore drilling in the arctic, and in the deep gulf, as well. as in the gulf mns has allowed bp to write its own environmental report in alaska. certainly that part of this can be overturned, can t it? or is the whole thing because it s been handed to bp and the right to do this, is this out of governmental control at this point? well, what s that old adage,