Making offshore oil and gas operations safer is never far from some people's minds. Recent reports and ongoing activities remind the rest of us that it still matters.
The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) held follow-up meetings Sept. 14-15 in Washington, DC, to clarify remaining issues that emerged from comments it received on its proposed offshore well control rule from Apr. 15 to July 16. They came days after the US Department of the Interior agency issued findings of its investigation into a July 2013 natural gas well blowout and fire in the Gulf of Mexico.
The report essentially blamed mistakes by the crew for the incident. It incorrectly calculated the drilling fluid's density and failed to account for temperatures that would be encountered once it was deep down in the casing. When high-pressure gas surged through the blowout preventer and reached the surface, crew members on the rig floor only became aware of the kick when completion fluid began to shoot out the drill pipe annulus.
"With the zinc bromide fluid raining down on them, the crew began to have difficulty working as the fluid caused a burning sensation to their eyes and skin," the report said. No one died, but some of the 44 workers who were evacuated reported injuries-mostly because they weren't wearing protective gear.
The explosion and fire at BP PLC's deepwater Macondo oil well 3 years earlier took 11 lives and leaked millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico before it was contained. It set the stage for significant offshore oil and gas policy reforms, starting with ways to make offshore operations safer for crews working out there. But the July 2013 South Timbalier incident report showed that much more work needs to be done.
COS Forum on horizon
It undoubtedly will be discussed when the Center for Offshore Safety, which the oil and gas industry formed soon after the Macondo incident, holds its third annual forum Sept. 22-23 in Houston. Much of it will be centered on ways to improve Safety and Environment Management Systems, or SEMS, the nontraditional, performance-based management tool BSEE now requires to reduce the frequency and severity of offshore accidents.
The American Petroleum Institute recently asked BSEE to arrange workshops with industry working groups that found flaws in the agency's proposed well control rule that could increase risks to people and the environment.
"We are committed to working with government officials to ensure that America's offshore energy development is the safest in the world," API Upstream Group Director Erik Milito said on Sept. 14. "Industry standards and smart regulatory oversight are the keys to our success."
