Interior beefs up rig safety rules again

The Interior Department’s offshore drilling branch floated draft rules Tuesday to upgrade safety standards for offshore oil-and-gas operations.

The new “Safety and Environmental Management Systems” (SEMS) rule floated by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) upgrades standards issued last October in the wake of the BP oil spill.

The plan — available here — is meant to further cut risks of accidents, injuries and spills, according to Interior.

The plan will “add greater protection by supplementing operators’ SEMS programs with employee training, engaging personnel in safety management, and strengthening auditing procedures by requiring them to be completed by independent third parties,” an Interior summary states.

It includes additional requirements for conducting job safety analyses; new procedures for employees to implement a “stop work authority” when witnessing dangerous activities; “clearly defined” requirements for who has safety and decision-making powers at offshore facilities; and other measures, according to Interior.

Interior’s offshore energy branch is also preparing a separate rule to further beef up standards around subsea blowout preventers — the supposedly fail-safe device that could not stop BP’s runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico — and many other aspects of well-drilling.

A preliminary rulemaking notice for that measure is expected after a joint BOEMRE-U.S. Coast Guard investigation into the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident completes a final report, BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich said this summer.

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