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BP focuses on safety, company’s CEO says
CLEVELAND
After the company’s high-profile Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is talking about safety as its focus moving forward.
BP CEO Bob Dudley was the featured speaker at a Business Leaders Series event and discussed the company’s operations throughout Ohio, including Trumbull County.
Dudley also discussed the company’s commitment to Ohio beyond shale development.
The development of shale gas by BP will be done in a safe manner, Dudley said.
“We have a project team on the group here in Ohio that is advancing a plan to safely appraise the resources,” he said. “We will set up our offices in Warren.”
The company will acquire seismic surveys, prepare a development plan and survey land for initial wells that will be drilled in 2013, Dudley said.
“We will be doing this in accordance with environmental best practices and keeping the communities informed along the way,” he said. “It is critical that people living near oil and gas operations, as well as the public at large, have as much information as possible about our activities so they can satisfy themselves that we are working safely.”
BP uses multiple layers of protection including steel piping encased in concrete at every drilling site, Dudley said.
“Our plan is to operate to the highest standards based on the best available science, and I would encourage everyone in the industry to do the same,” he said. “Safety is just good business.”
Fracking, the process of using water, sand and chemicals to open rock and release oil and gas thousands of feet below ground, has a terrible image, Dudley said, adding things have been said about the process that are complete misinformation.
Some smaller companies have not used the best practices. Those instances have helped create the bad reputation, he said.
BP announced its plan several months ago to lease about 84,000 acres of land in Trumbull County. The process is ongoing, as mineral rights to the properties with signed leases are being reviewed, and payments to those who signed leases with BP are expected to be sent to landowners through October.
The company is in the early process of evaluating the prospects within the Utica Shale. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates a recoverable shale potential of 5.5 billion barrels of oil and 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Shale gas has created a huge change in energy development in the United States, Dudley said.
“North Dakota is now as big [in production] as some OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] countries,” he said. “No one saw that coming.”
Shelly Gordon from Humana represented the City Club, one of the event’s sponsors. She said BP will play a critical role in the nation’s energy revolution.
It is possible that the United States could become energy self-sufficient by 2030, she said.
Dudley’s career reflects the changes that the industry has faced during the past few decades, said Joe Roman, CEO of The Greater Cleveland Partnership.
Throughout the world, energy demand is expected to increase by 40 percent by 2030, Dudley said.
“That’s like adding another China and U.S. to the current demand,” he said. “I think meeting that demand is one of the great challenges facing mankind.”