International Officials To Discuss Supporting Oil Spill Containment Tech

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–International officials will meet in Washington April 14 to discuss promoting “cutting-edge technologies” for containing a spill at a deep-water oil well, the U.S. Interior Department said Monday.

Officials from 13 nations and the European Union along with oil and gas industry representatives and non-governmental organizations have been invited to a forum convened by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the department said. The officials will hear suggestions about promoting the development of containment technologies and get a briefing on lessons learned from previous “blowouts” like the one that caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

Salazar, who discussed the “safe development” of offshore resources with officials in Brazil Monday and was also scheduled to travel to Mexico, said in a statement that “those of us engaged in offshore energy exploration and production have a collective responsibility to strengthen our capabilities for containing potential deepwater blowouts and promoting international collaboration, research and development going forward.”

The forum will be held at the Interior Department’s Washington office and is open to the public. Those wishing to attend must reply to [email protected].

-By Ryan Tracy, Dow Jones Newswires

The press release from the DOI can be found HERE

Pictured: Helix’s Q4000 Well Intervention Vessel