Between federal regulators and private operators, there is still much deep blue sea over safety lessons from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
The Daily Advertiser reports that the disparity is apparent from the words of Dale Bradford, vice president of worldwide drilling and completions for Murphy Exploration & Productions, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which has been working with industry for five years to develop and finalize safety regulations that would prevent a repeat of the Gulf of Mexico tragedy that left 11 rig workers dead, damaged Louisiana’s coast and wildlife and left a costly moratorium in place.
The proposed rule that BSEE revealed April 17, which could become finalized by year’s end, contained provisions on new rules for well control and blowout preventers. The changes, as presented, would make some wells undrillable because of what Bradford says are needless costs and could impose what would amount to new, de facto moratoriums on Gulf drilling until the federal demands, if they become final, could be met—if they can be met.
Bradford says the three-month comment period following the announcement of the proposed rule was too brief to allow industry representatives time to fully study the proposed rule and respond, and that engineers suggestions were often ignored. Gregory Julian, a BSEE spokesman, says BSEE officials met with industry reps over a four-year span to discuss the proposed regulations and that their suggestions were taken into consideration.
John Rogers Smith, a retired drilling professor at LSU, said the regulators don’t develop new rules randomly. Instead, they typically seek out industry input.
“My understanding is that this is an evolution of what BSEE is trying to do,” Smith said. “We learned many things from Macondo. We learned real fast and under bad circumstances. … Whether the rule is good, I have no idea. But the rule is not something out of the blue.”
