New drilling safety mandates expected ‘any day now’

The federal government is on track to issue soon a final set of standards meant to boost the design and cementing of offshore wells in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster two years ago. James Watson, the director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, tells The Houston Chronicle the drilling safety measure is set to be finalized “any day now.” When it comes out, the final drilling safety rule will tweak existing mandates issued in October 2010 in response to the lethal blowout of BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. The original measure, imposed on an emergency basis, essentially codified industry’s existing best practices for designing and securing offshore wells. The regulation also imposed new requirements for certifying, inspecting and maintaining emergency devices—known as blowout preventers—that are a last line of defense against unexpected oil and gas surges. Although the mandates applied immediately in October 2010, regulators made clear they would take public comments and might revise the rule as a result. They also issued a five-page memo in March 2011 meant to clarify the requirements, amid oil and gas industry complaints that the mandates were muddled. More details on issues that have delayed the standards to date are available in the full story here.