The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) take actions to develop, finalize, and implement updated pipeline regulations to address long-standing limitations regarding the bureau’s ability to ensure the integrity of active pipelines and address safety and environmental risks associated with retired pipelines and their decommissioning. Interior agreed with the recommendation.
Since the 1960s, BSEE has allowed the offshore oil and gas industry to leave 97% of pipelines (18,000 miles) on the seafloor when no longer in use. But the bureau doesn’t ensure that standards regarding issues such as cleaning and burial are met. It also doesn’t monitor pipeline condition or movement from currents over time. Further, GAO stated, if these pipelines later pose safety or environmental risks, there’s no clear funding source for their removal.
The cumulative effects of BSEE oversight gaps before, during, and after decommissioning have led to the absence of a robust process to address the environmental and safety risks posed by these pipelines. BSEE does not thoroughly account for such risks during the review of decommissioning applications. Generally, pipelines must be removed from the seafloor, with BSEE allowing pipelines to be decommissioned-in-place if certain criteria are met. The 97% approval rate, however, indicates that leaving pipelines in place is not an exception, but rather has been the norm for decades.
GAO also stated that BSEE does not ensure operators meet decommissioning standards, such as cleaning pipelines, because they do not observe any pipeline decommissioning activities, inspect pipelines after their decommissioning, or verify most of the pipeline decommissioning evidence submitted. BSEE also does not monitor the condition and location of pipelines following their decommissioning-in-place, which reduces its ability to mitigate long-term risks.
BSEE also lacks a robust oversight process for ensuring the integrity of the roughly 8,600 miles of active offshore oil and gas pipelines on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor, according to GAO. Specifically, BSEE does not generally conduct or require any subsea inspections of active pipelines. Instead, the bureau relies on monthly surface observations and pressure sensors to detect leaks.
Officials, however, told GAO that these methods and technologies are not always reliable for detecting ruptures. In response to a pair of significant oil leaks in 2016 and 2017, BSEE partnered with industry to improve subsea leak detection, but the technologies identified remain relatively new and cannot be retrofitted to a majority of pipelines.
According to BSEE, the bureau’s regulations are outdated and do not address how pipelines should be inspected, the complexities of deepwater pipeline operations, and changes in technological standards. BSEE has long recognized the need to improve its pipeline regulations, GAO said, and in 2007 issued a proposed rule that cited the need to enhance safety and protect the environment, but this effort stalled.
The 2007 proposed rule addressed offshore pipeline integrity, including new requirements regarding pipeline inspection and subsea leak detection technologies. Since 2013, BSEE has noted plans to update its pipeline regulations but has made limited progress. Without taking actions to implement updated regulations to address identified oversight gaps, BSEE will continue to be limited in its ability to ensure the integrity of active pipelines.