The US administration rolled out two new emergency rules today designed to improve drilling and workplace safety offshore in the wake of the BP oil spill.
US interior secretary Ken Salazar will require operators to provide certification that a well's casing and cementing are adequate and that blowout preventers (BOPs) are capable of cutting any drill pipe in the hole under maximum anticipated surface pressure.
The rule also will require that a subsea BOP stack be equipped with a remotely operated vehicle capable of closing one set of shear rams and unlatching the lower marine riser package. The new regulation also requires that operators test their subsea BOPs on the seafloor, establishes minimum requirements for personnel authorized to operate BOP equipment and requires operators to ensure proper installation, sealing and locking of the casing or lining.
“The drilling safety rule will help prevent the possibility of blowouts by strengthening wellbore integrity and well-control equipment,” Salazar said today at a Washington forum. He did not say whether the continuing deepwater drilling moratorium would be lifted before its 30 November deadline, but Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) Michael Bromwich was scheduled to submit a report on the matter later today.
Many of the new rules are in direct response to the 20 April
Deepwater Horizonrig disaster that killed 11 workers and caused a massive US Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP has said the cementing on its ill-fated Macondo well failed, while the BOP failed to activate despite repeated attempts. Cement contractor Halliburton and BOP and rig owner Transocean have blamed BP.
The rule will take effect immediately, but the public will have 60 days to submit comments, and the Interior Department may then make modifications.
A second rule will require that offshore operators develop safety and environmental management systems to “identify potential hazards when they drill”, Salazar said.
The rule stipulates that operators have programs in place to identify potential hazards and strategies to reduce risk, from well design and construction to operation, maintenance and decommissioning. Salazar said a number of companies object to what he called “this common sense rule.”
Salazar said: “In my view, the rule is needed”.
In coming weeks, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) director Michael Bromwich will begin a formal rulemaking process to tighten design standards for BOPs. As part of that rulemaking, administration officials will consider requiring that BOPs have two sets of blind shear rams as well as improved instrumentation and additional redundancies.
Requiring that BOPs have two sets of blind shear rams at last four feet apart was a key recommendation in Salazar's 27 May report to President Barack Obama on the Macondo accident. That proposal was designed to ensure a BOP can cut the drill pipe even if a pair of sheer rams strikes a thicker pipe joint.
But Salazar said administration officials “recognize that these additional requirements will have a cost for industry”. So rather than issue a new requirement on an emergency basis, Interior opted to go through the more formal rulemaking process, including a cost-benefit analysis and input from the public, before implementation.
Interior also expects to propose additional standards, including a requirement that a firm's safety management system is verified by an independent third party, Salazar said.
“The US oil and gas industry needs to expect a dynamic regulatory environment as we bring the US offshore programs up to the gold standard that they deserve to have,” Salazar said.
In response to the announcement, Shell said it was encouraged that the new rules “closely match Shell's existing global standards for deepwater drilling.
“What remains unclear is industry's ability to obtain the necessary permits that will actually allow a return to work.We need clarity around the effectiveness and timeliness of the permitting process,” Shell said.
Shallow-water producers, who were not subject to the ban, have complained that the permit process has slowed approvals to a trickle, creating a de facto moratorium on their industry.