BOEMRE’s New Regulatory Approach to Environmental and Safety Systems Management
a report by HA Tony Wood Director, National Spill Control School, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi
Events during the spring and summer of 2010 resulted in the loss of 11 lives, the Deepwater Horizon Rig and the associated well, little less than 5 million barrels of petroleum and many billions of dollars. However, the real impacts of this incident go much deeper than these obvious losses. The effects on the exploration and production (E&P) industry will be more than a drilling moratorium and new deepwater drilling regulations. Although the importance of offshore petroleum resources and the vital industries that bring them into the consumer economy, are clearly part of national interests, the many political and economic stakeholders that share these marine and coastal resources have now been awakened.
It was inevitable that new legislation and regulations would follow such an event. There was an initial ban on offshore exploration in deep waters coupled with a restructuring of the US Minerals Management Service (MMS) and formation of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) in June 2010. The BOEMRE was directed to reform the US Government’s regulation of offshore energy development. Their goal was to make the changes necessary to restore confidence in the offshore E&P industry and its safety and environmental programmes. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stressed that the BOEMRE will be charged with “protecting our oceans and coastal communities” and has called this “a more stringent regulatory regime.” BOEMRE has a stated goal of targeting “companies that aim to game the system.” It certainly appears that minimally acceptable compliance narrowly avoiding prosecution (MACNAP) might not be enough to satisfy regulators, shareholders, or stockholders.
The MMS had been subtly introducing environmental management systems (EMS) into the exploration and production industry by encouraging voluntary compliance with the Safety and Environmental Management Programme (SEMP) [American Petroleum Institute (API) RP 75: Recommended Practice for Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for Offshore Operations and Facilities] over the past few years. MMS studies showed that EMS had been an accepted requirement in many businesses and governmental institutions and that implementation of EMS into the E&P industry was logical. Until recently, the official position of MMS and BOEMRE was that there were no mandatory EMS requirements. Gradually, the new notices to lease holders began to require EMS (ISO 14000) components for offshore drilling. Although the Workplace Safety Rule, published in mid-October 2010, did not mandate the comprehensive implementation of Safety & Environmental Management Systems (SEMS), one of the key organisational teams within the new BOEMRE is dedicated to this topic. This team will design an auditing programme for the compliance of operators with the new SEMS approach. The new requirements relating to the development and implementation of SEMS programmes represent a
© TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2011
significant advance in the promulgation of performance-based standards for safety and environmental protection.
Those offshore operating companies that embrace environmental and safety systems management and strive to reach beyond compliance will do well and will establish a sustainable business model for developing their outer continental shelf (OCS) leases. Similar to EMS, ISO 14000 and ISO 18000, the BOEMRE SEMP approach focuses on integrated offshore operating programmes and systems that offer continual environmental and safety improvements throughout the organisation by encouraging both executive leadership-down and floorhand-up involvement. EMS encourages E&P companies to recognise the importance of affected stakeholders throughout their sphere of economic and environmental influence. Ultimately, the advantages of an EMS are voluntarily assured regulatory compliance, reduced operating costs, integrated environmental programmes with the primary business mission of the company, increased employee involvement, reduced environmental impacts and ultimately, improved business sustainability. Offshore exploration has always pushed the envelope of technological capabilities within the envelope of the economic realities of the day. As this article is being drafted at the National Spill Control School on the campus of Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, I can look across Corpus Christi Bay and proudly see some of the largest drilling rigs in the world being built. Both the Perdido Spar and the Bullwinkle rigs were built in Ingleside, Texas.
The Initial Deepwater Drilling Moratorium The moratorium on deepwater drilling that started in May 2010 provided the agencies time to evaluate the causes of the MC 252 blowout and establish new regulations and guidance. Citing the new regulations, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) lifted the moratorium in October 2010, ahead of schedule. This was possible because the Macondo well was plugged and idled and new response resources were available. The long moratorium still represented a significant burden for the Gulf Coast economy.
HA Tony Wood is the Director of the National Spill Control School at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, Texas. He has worked on environmental management projects throughout the US as well as in the UK, mainland Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East. He has consulted to most major industrial classifications and many government agencies. His expertise includes: industrial waste management; disposal and recycling; environmental strategies
planning; water resource management; and environmental and safety systems development. Mr Wood graduated from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (AMU-CC) and the National Spill Control School (NSCS) in 1979 and then spent 31 years as an environmental consultant and environmental business developer.
E:
tony.wood@tamucc.edu
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Industry Outlook
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