Jewell gets first up-close look at offshore operations

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is no stranger to the oil patch, but until Friday, her exposure was limited to land. The new perspective came courtesy of the Cabinet official's visit to an Ensco semisubmersible drilling rig and Chevron's Blind Faith production platform in the Gulf of Mexico — the kind of facilities that were off-limits to women when Jewell worked for Mobil Oil three decades ago. “I've never been on an offshore rig,” Jewell observed Friday after donning a hard hat and gloves on Chevron's platform 160 miles from New Orleans. “When I was in the oil business, they didn't let women offshore.” Now, Jewell is in charge of regulating the industry. It's a remarkable transformation for the mechanical engineer turned Interior secretary who now oversees energy development on 1.7 billion acres of federal waters. Along the way, she has been the CEO of Recreational Equipment Inc. and spent 19 years in the commercial banking industry, including a stint as an energy analyst. Friday, she got an up-close view of federal regulators conducting offshore inspections at oil production and drilling facilities...more