The U.S. Minerals Management Service is considering giving offshore operators more leeway in management of their safety and environmental protection programs.
It is seeking comments on whether it should require Outer Continental Shelf lessees to implement safety and environmental management programs similar to those Norway and the U.K. allow in the North Sea.
MMS said a 1989 task force found its OCS inspection and enforcement program was operating "effectively and efficiently" but might not be able to meet the anticipated inspection demands of the 1990s.
The agency said, "Inspection demands will likely increase as operations move into deeper waters farther from shore, and platforms are equipped with more wells and more elaborate operating systems."
The National Research Council's marine board, in a 1990 study of the MMS inspection program, said the current inspection strategy could encourage lessees to conduct operations in a manner simply to pass MMS inspection requirements. NRC called that "a compliance mentality."
Under the proposal, MMS would prescribe general policies and procedures to assure safety and environmental protection in offshore operations but would make lessee/operators responsible for issuing their own detailed procedures and carrying them out.
MMS said, "Many lessees/operators have instituted similar programs into their operations and most of the remaining operators have some type of informal, or undocumented, management program that addresses safety and environmental policies and procedures."
The agency issued its proposal in the July 2 Federal Register.
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