Interior drilling chief weighs broad new rules, mum on post-October future

The Interior Department’s top offshore drilling regulator is eyeing wide changes to drilling safety rules that have already been beefed up in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), told reporters Wednesday that an upcoming preliminary notice of new regulations will be “extremely broad.”

It will include rules governing subsea blowout preventers — the supposedly fail-safe device that could not stop BP’s runaway well — and many other aspects of drilling safety. “It will contemplate a large body of improvements and enhancements to our current regulations,” Bromwich said.

Bromwich’s comments signal that regulators believe improved oversight remains a work in progress despite new policies and safeguards adopted after the Deepwater Horizon disaster last year.

The bureau last year issued new standards for well design, casing, cementing, blowout preventers and other equipment.

The bureau now is preparing a so-called advance notice of proposed rulemaking for the further revisions, a preliminary step in the rulemaking process that will solicit input on its plans.

Bromwich said it would focus on “all the elements of drilling safety.” He spoke from New Orleans, where Interior's offshore drilling safety advisory panel is meeting.

The notice is expected after a joint BOEMRE-U.S. Coast Guard investigation into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident completes a final report late this month, in order to ensure the reports findings can be considered.

In addition to the rules, the offshore drilling agency is continuing a reorganization of what used to be called the Minerals Management Service.

Royalty revenue collections have already been moved away from drilling oversight to another part of the Interior Department.

But the bureau is also dividing into two separate branches: The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement that will enforce the safety and environmental rules, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will manage resource development matters, such as leasing.

Bromwich said the overhaul is on track for completion Oct. 1 as planned.

But Bromwich, a former Justice Department official tapped to lead the post-spill overhaul of Interior’s long troubled offshore branch, isn’t saying whether he will stay on board beyond that.

“I am really focused on what we are doing right now, the reorganization, making it as successful as it can possibly be,” he said.

One of Bromwich’s plans is getting new pushback from Capitol Hill Republicans. They are seeking to stymie, at least for now, the extension of offshore drilling rules to cover contractors.

In May Bromwich said BOEMRE has authority to extend its regulations to contractors, such as rig owners, rather than applying the rules only to oil-and-gas companies that hold leases, such as BP.

But the Interior Department spending bill moving through the House would limit that effort until BOEMRE has “fully explained” its authority, intentions and goals.

Bromwich on Wednesday said he was surprised by the provision in House Appropriations Committee report language accompanying Interior’s fiscal 2012 spending plan.

“We have briefed committee staff on this precise issue, but based on that language, it sounds like we need to do that again,” he said, adding that he’s happy to do so.