Interior plans ‘major’ new offshore-drilling safety rules

A top Interior Department official said Tuesday that another set of major offshore-drilling safety rules are in the works.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich said the rulemaking process would begin “in the very near future.”

“This process will be broad, inclusive and ambitious. Our goal will be nothing less than a further set of enhancements that will increase drilling safety and diminish the risks of a major blowout,” Bromwich said, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It will address weaknesses and necessary improvements to blowout preventers, as well as many other issues,” added Bromwich.

Bromwich spoke on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and touched off the months-long BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Bromwich’s agency has already issued beefed-up drilling standards around well design, certification of blowout preventers, spill response capability and other areas, as well as new workplace safety rules.

Bromwich said Tuesday that in addition to the upcoming rulemaking on drilling safety, there will be modifications to the workplace safety regulations — including requiring third-party audits of companies’ so-called Safety and Environmental Management Systems

He said he was hopeful various industry safety initiatives undertaken in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster would help inform the new drilling regulations.

Bromwich also said regulatory changes will not come at the rapid-fire pace seen in the aftermath of the spill, which laid bare major safety concerns.

“The changes that we have put in place will endure because they were urgent, necessary and appropriate. And more change will surely come, although not at the frantic pace of the past year,” Bromwich said.