Downturn is no time to let down on maintenance, safety leader says
The federal government’s top offshore drilling regulator warned oil drillers in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday not to let the current downturn in commodity prices affect their maintenance of drilling rigs and other equipment.
“We all know the offshore environment carries inherent risks,” said Brian Salerno, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. “We also know the current economic times have placed a lot of stress on the in- dustry. We do not want to see incidents increase because of deferred maintenance.”
Salerno’s comments at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston came as his agency released data showing 206 reported worker injuries across all U.S. offshore leases last year, ending a three-year spike in accidents.
There were also 105 fires and three losses of well control — none of which were major, Salerno said.
“Overall, we can characterize the data as trending in the right direction,” he said.
The safety of drilling thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface has come under increased scrutiny since 2010 when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, spilling an estimated 3.19 million barrels of oil into the Gulf.
Last month, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement released its long-awaited response to the spill, a lengthy set of rules on everything from blowout preventers to drilling pressure.
Industry officials have been critical of the rule, describing
it as lacking flexibility and likely to cost companies hundreds of billions of dollars.
That criticism continued Tuesday when American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard called on the winner of November’s presidential election to avoid increasing regulations on a struggling domestic oil and gas industry.
‘Please don’t hinder’
“If you can’t assist, please don’t hinder our industry’s ability to produce, refine and store the energy our nation and the world needs,” he said. “In spite of our industry’s record of safe operations and leadership, we have to contend with policies that seem de- termined to undermine the progress our nation has made to become a global energy leader through rules and regulations that stifle domestic energy production.”
Last year, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement performed more than 20,000 inspections of oil and gas facilities, issuing more than 2,000 citations for noncompliance with federal rules.
Fears of corrosion
A growing area of concern within the agency are the metal bolts used to hold together drilling equipment under the surface of the ocean.
Due to corrosion, the bolts are failing faster than anticipated.
Federal officials are in discussions with the bolts’ manufacturers, along with oil and gas companies in the Gulf, to try to find out why. But so far, no definitive answers have been found, said Douglas Morris, chief of offshore regulatory programs at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
“We’ve seen a pattern for all three major equipment manufacturers,” he said at a news conference. “The industry is trying to figure out a solution.”