Nick Snow
Washington Editor
The US Bureau of Offshore Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement may be considering hazardous duty pay for its offshore oil and gas inspectors in some cases.
"Petroleum engineers often operate in environments which would warrant hazardous duty pay," observed US Department of the Interior's acting Insp. Gen. Mary L. Kendall during a Mar. 1 House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on DOI's management and operations challenges.
The higher salaries could help the US Bureau of Land Management, as well as BOEMRE, compete more effectively with the oil and gas industry for qualified employees, "and it's beginning to be considered," she said.
The idea was one of 60 suggestions Kendall's office asked BOEMRE officials to consider in a December report, she said.
"I'm not certain they like the idea, but they are evaluating it. They have mentioned that their inspectors often face hazardous conditions working offshore," she told OGJ.
The concept is consistent with what US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar and BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich have been saying about DOI's need to recruit and retain skilled inspectors. Both have described administrative measures to improve the federal government's management of its offshore resources, ranging from a major restructuring of the former US Minerals Management Service to eliminating potential conflicts of interest to Bromwich's recent recruitment tour of several leading US universities' petroleum engineering departments.
Necessary ingredient
Salazar also has reminded federal lawmakers—as he has testified about DOI's Fiscal 2012 budget request—that BOEMRE needs to have enough money to complete its overhaul and start doing its job properly.
That could be a hard case to make since several newly elected members of Congress apparently came to Washington believing that government employees overall earn good salaries and receive excellent medical and retirement benefits.
Salazar and other DOI officials have a readily available response. They simply mention the Macondo well accident, which killed 11 people, and the resulting 5 million bbl of oil that spilled into the gulf. Investigations revealed the need for stronger regulations and enforcement, and that takes money, they maintain.
"The budget makes investments to increase capacity for leasing and environmental review, safety and environmental enforcement, and oil spill research," Salazar said. "This request will enable [DOI] to hire over 100 inspectors, engineers, and other safety and enforcement staff by the end of 2012."
Offering hazardous duty pay to offshore inspectors is only one of many actions BOEMRE is considering, Kendall told OGJ. "They're already hard at work in several areas," she said.
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