Washington — The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is reinstating a number of beforehand withdrawn provisions of a closing rule supposed to deal with gaps in offshore drilling safety recognized after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
BSEE developed the 2016 Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control closing rule after its investigation of the Deepwater Horizon incident concluded that the rig’s blowout preventer, or BOP, was a foremost contributor to the explosion. Eleven employees had been killed and thousands and thousands of barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast.
Citing “unnecessary regulatory burdens,” a 2019 revision of the rule rolled again about 20% of the unique rule’s 342 provisions, together with these regarding BOP design, upkeep and restore.
Provisions of the up to date regulation embody requiring:
- BOPs to have the ability to at all times shut and seal the wellbore to the properly’s most anticipated floor stress, besides as in any other case specified within the BOP system requirement part of the laws.
- Failure knowledge to be reported to each a chosen third occasion and BSEE.
- Failure evaluation and investigations to start inside 90 days of an incident.
- Independent, third-party {qualifications} to be submitted to BSEE with the related allow purposes.
- The operator to supply BOP check outcomes to BSEE inside 72 hours after completion of the checks if the company is unable to witness testing.
“Finalizing this rule will enable BSEE to continue to put the lives and livelihoods of workers first, as well as the protection of our waters and marine habitats,” BSEE Director Kevin Sligh stated in a press launch.
The rule is ready to enter impact Oct. 23.
