New Off-Shore Drilling Rules Seek To Prevent Events Like Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Federal regulators have introduced a number of new offshore drilling regulations in order to prevent another massive oil spill, like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident, which damaged hundreds of miles of coastline and led to the deaths of 11 workers and billions in economic damages. 

The final well control regulations were announced by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) on April 14, following an extensive review of the circumstances that led to the Deepwater Horizon incident and resulted in BP paying billions in settlements and fines.

The Gulf Coast oil spill started shortly after an explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which killed 11 workers in April 2010. The damage sent the oil rig, which controlled the Macondo well, to the bottom of the Gulf and unleashed an oil spill in the Gulf that many now consider the worst environmental disaster in history.

The massive environmental disaster released nearly five million barrels of toxic oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, impacting several states, including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

The final offshore drilling rule contains a number of new regulations on systems and equipment linked to well control operations, including:

• Blowout preventer requirements
• Well design
• Well control casing
• Cementing
• Real-time monitoring
• Subsea containment

The rule calls for equipment to undergo rigorous testing and requires continuous oversight.

“The well control rule is a vital part of our extensive reform agenda to strengthen, update and modernize our offshore energy program using lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon,” Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said in a press release. “I applaud BSEE for their work to develop a rule that takes into consideration an intensive analysis of the causes of the tragedy, advances in industry standards, best practices, as well as an unprecedented level of stakeholder outreach.”

The well control rule grew out of investigations and reports from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Oil Spill Commission, and the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee, in addition to comments from industry and environmental groups.

According to the BSEE, many parts of the rule are in line with industry standards and best practices that came about following the catastrophic oil spill.