What could go wrong when we drill so deep that immediate response to a disaster becomes virtually impossible? The Deepwater Horizon for one, and this.
A deepwater rig in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland suffered a blowout five days ago, and is uncontrollably leaking natural gas in what experts fear is an “explosion waiting to happen.” “Relief drilling would take six months and require boring through 4 kilometers of rock with painstaking precision in order to intercept the gas pocket, one engineer said.” “All 238 staff were evacuated from the Elgin platform after the gas leak was discovered on Sunday afternoon. Shell is also removing workers from two offshore installations close to the Elgin platform,” the Guardian reports.
"Relief drilling would take six months and require boring through 4 kilometers of rock with painstaking precision."
That sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? Too familiar.