American Petroleum Institute announces support for proposed updated safety regulations
The American Petroleum Institute (API) recently voiced support for efforts by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) to strengthen safety for offshore oil and natural gas drilling while reducing the regulatory burden on the industry.
The agency recently proposed revisions to the Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rules, and will open a 60-day public comment period.
According to BSEE, the proposed revisions would amend the testing protocol for blowout preventers, modify capability requirements for remotely operated vehicles, remove duplicative verification requirements, and codify recent revisions to industry standards.
“BSEE’s decision to revise its technically flawed Well Control Rule will help to strengthen safer offshore operations,” said Erik Milito, API’s director of Upstream and Industry Operations. “These revisions will move us forward on safety, help the government better regulate risks and better protect workers and the environment.”
API, a trade group that represents the oil and gas industry, also highlighted in a statement other rules, regulatory enhancements, standards and safety programs, which API and the broader industry have worked closely on with the U.S. Department of the Interior. Those efforts include the Center for Offshore Safety, the Marine Well Containment Company, HWCG, new API standards on well containment and blowout prevention equipment and DOI’s drilling safety rule and safety and environmental management systems rule.
“As with all regulations, it is important that offshore safety regulations – including BSEE’s Well Control Rule – constantly evolve and are revised based upon new insights and developments in the offshore exploration and development field,” Milito said. “Instead of locking in regulatory provisions that may actually increase risk in operations, it is critical that revisions are made that enhance the regulatory framework to ensure updated, modern, and safe technologies, best practices, and operations.”
BSEE said its regulatory reform involved analyzing all 342 provisions of the 2016 Well Control Final Rule, and determining that 59 of those provisions – less than 18 percent of the 2016 Rule – were appropriate for proposed updating and revision.
BSEE said it compared each of the proposed changes to the 424 recommendations arising from 26 separate reports from 14 different organizations developed in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The team determined that none of the proposed rule changes would ignore or contradict any of those recommendations, or would alter any provision of the 2016 Well Control Final Rule in a way that would make the result inconsistent with those recommendations, BSEE said in a written statement on April 27.
