Interior mulling remote monitoring of offshore rigs

The Interior Department is examining the prospect of monitoring offshore oil-and-gas drilling projects remotely, the country’s top offshore drilling official said Monday.

In a speech in Houston, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) Director Michael Bromwich said the agency will conduct a study on “remote monitoring” in which regulators would be able to oversee offshore drilling-rig activities from onshore monitoring centers.

Bromwich said he would visit industry-run control centers in the Gulf starting Tuesday “to learn more about the types of activities that can be monitored from shore, as well as the equipment, personnel and procedures involved in remote monitoring.” He will visit command centers in New Orleans and Houston run by Shell, Chevron and Anadarko, among others, he said.

“Depending on the results of our review and subsequent discussions, remote monitoring may prove to be a very useful tool for making offshore regulation more effective and efficient,” Bromwich said in a wide-ranging speech at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

If approved, remote monitoring would be conducted in conjunction with in-person inspections by BOEMRE officials.

The Interior Department has worked to beef up its offshore drilling-inspection program in the aftermath of last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill as part of a broad overhaul of the agency's drilling oversight. The department came under criticism for being stretched too thin and for not devoting adequate inspection time to offshore rigs.

BOEMRE is establishing a National Offshore Training Center to “develop national training strategies and programs to maintain and improve the technical capabilities of offshore inspections and compliance personnel throughout the bureau,” Bromwich said, according to his prepared remarks.

“In the past, our inspectors have learned how to do their jobs through a combination of on-the-job training and industry-sponsored courses aimed at teaching how certain types of equipment function,” Bromwich said. “The agency has never had a training center dedicated to training inspectors on how to do their jobs. Now we will.”