Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf-Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Revisions

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is revising existing regulations for well control and blowout preventer systems. This final rule revises requirements for well design, well control, casing, cementing, real-time monitoring (RTM), and subsea containment. These revisions modify regulations pertaining to offshore oil and gas drilling, completions, workovers, and decommissioning in accordance with Executive and Secretary of the Interior's Orders to ensure safety and environmental protection, while correcting errors and reducing certain unnecessary regulatory burdens imposed under the existing regulations. Accordingly, after thoroughly reexamining the 2016 Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control final rule (WCR), experiences from the implementation process, and various BSEE policies (notices to lessees, answers to frequently asked questions, and conditions of approval), BSEE will amend, revise, or remove certain current regulatory provisions that create unnecessary burdens on stakeholders, while still maintaining safety and environmental protection. The final regulations also address various issues and errors that BSEE identified during the implementation of the 2016 WCR.