The Trump administration would weaken a key offshore drilling rule imposed after 2010 BP oil spill under a proposal announced Friday.
The rewrite of the “Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule” reflects technical changes sought by the industry, which oil and natural gas groups say are modest and meant to align with industry standards, and are not a rollback of the regulation.
It comes a week after the eighth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, when a blowout preventer device broke at the bottom of the sea, spewing almost 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and killing 11 workers.
Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement submitted the revised rule to the Federal Register Friday for publication next week, beginning a 60-day public comment process.
“Using innovation and best science to increase safety and reliability, BSEE took a careful and deliberate approach to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens,” said BSEE Director Scott Angelle. “These reform efforts are part of the Trump administration’s push for smart and safe energy development. We’ll continue to work to do our job smarter and to ensure industry is exploring and operating safely.”
The original rule, issued in 2016 by the Obama administration, set minimum standards for drilling, well design and equipment maintenance in hopes of preventing another major oil spill.
BSEE said the changes will affect 59 of the rule’s 342 provisions. For example, the agency is proposing to relax mandates for real-time monitoring of offshore operations, deeming the requirements “prescriptive.”
Another change would eliminate a requirement that BSEE must certify the third-party vendors who inspect offshore oil equipment such as blowout preventers for safety.
The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill was caused by BP’s lack of maintenance of the blowout valve. The device is meant to prevent a surge in pressure from causing catastrophic explosions and spills.
A third revision would remove a provision making offshore operators stop production when they are approached by lift boats that transport equipment to drilling sites.
The proposed rule does not contain some changes sought by industry that were included in previous draft forms of the plan.
It maintains an existing requirement that BSEE confirm the amount of pressure drillers propose to use in a new well is “safe.”
Still, the industry is happy with the proposed changes.
“BSEE’s decision to revise its technically flawed Well Control Rule will help to strengthen safer offshore operations,” said Erik Milito, the American Petroleum Institute’s director of upstream and industry operations, in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “These revisions will move us forward on safety, help the government better regulate risks and better protect workers and the environment.”
Critics said the existing rule has worked effectively and should not be tampered with, even if the changes may be less significant than the Trump administration had considered.
“The proposed rule has many changes from the previous rule which has been proven to be effective,” Lois Epstein, Arctic program director for the Wilderness Society, told the Washington Examiner. “Thanks to the existing rule, incidents involving loss of well control have fallen from eight in 2013 to zero last year. The rule works and is vital to safer offshore operations. Weakening it would not only increase the risk of environmental disaster — it could cost lives.”
Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and other Democrats introduced legislation last week to codify the existing “Well Control Rule.”
“After over $65 billion of damage and bipartisan congressional oversight hearings on the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, new protections were put in place to make sure this type of disaster never happened again,” Cantwell said Friday. “Today Interior is trying to ignore those protections. They are creating an unbelievable liability for taxpayers by ignoring safety.”
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, applauded the revisions, arguing offshore drilling technology has become safer.
“Revising the existing rule will bring standards up to speed and maintain safety protocols for American workers and protection for the environment,” Bishop said. “As we continue to build on the lessons of Deepwater Horizon, we must update regulations to accurately reflect tremendous leaps in technology.”
Republicans from states along the Gulf of Mexico criticized changes to the rule.
“The Trump administration decision to undermine safety rules for offshore oil drilling is reckless and unacceptable,” said Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla. “Have we learned nothing from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe? These safeguards should remain in place.”
