API: Industry Continues To Lead Offshore Safety Enhancements
Erik Milito, director of the American Petroleum Institute's upstream group, offered the following comments regarding BOEMRE's announcement on workplace safety in offshore oil and gas operations:
"API and the industry continue to provide leadership in developing and implementing advancements for safe offshore operations," said Milito. "We will carefully review the proposed rules and look forward to continuing to work with BOEMRE to ensure that requirements for workplace safety, the environment and continued energy production are met. Any additions to already intricate regulatory processes should allow for new exploration and responsible development of our domestic offshore energy resources without unpredictable barriers or delays.
"Last year, the oil and natural gas industry led the way in creating four Joint Industry Task Forces that provided positive recommendations to the government on how to improve safety through a systems-based approach. API and the International Association of Drilling Contractors are jointly detailing Well Construction Interface Document Guidelines, which helps to improve safety by linking the management systems of offshore operators with those of drilling contractors."
API is also moving forward with the development of a standard on deepwater well construction, which provides practices that are intended to achieve a high level of total system reliability. Significant enhancements have been made to prevent and respond to a spill, and we have redundancies to ensure if one system breaks down, there are others in place, Milito said.
"In March of this year, the industry announced the creation of the Center for Offshore Safety. Parts of the Center's core functions are the application of independent third-party audits, and Safety and Environmental Management Systems programs for use by companies active in deepwater operations. For this, the Center will rely upon API's recommended practice 75 as a tool for the implementation of these SEMS programs by members of the Center. API RP 75, already incorporated into regulation by BOEMRE, includes a section on training and competencies, including contractor training."
About API
API represents more than 480 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America's energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86M a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2T in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.
SOURCE: API