6 years after Deepwater Horizon tragedy, U.S. issues new drilling rules
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Interior issued new safety regulations Thursday designed to cut the risk of oil and natural gas explosions during offshore drilling operations.
The new "well control" guidelines, spurred by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 people, will bolster design, manufacture, repair and maintenance requirements for oil well blowout preventers. That's the same device that didn't function properly on
the BP Horizon rig, leading to the worst maritime oil spill in U.S. history.
In a 2014 report, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found the cutting blades on the Horizon's blowout preventer -- which seals oil and gas wells in emergencies -- had failed to completely sever an off-center steel drill pipe.
That allowed the pipe to remain a conduit for oil and gas that spewed to the surface, leading to an explosion on the rig and triggering an 87-day spill that released an estimated 4 million barrels of oil and gas.
Along with 11 who died, 17 others suffered serious injuries and 115 people were evacuated from the rig, which sank roughly 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
The wide-ranging and comprehensive guidelines require BOP systems to feature technology that allows the drill pipe to be centered when the blowout preventer's cutting blades are in use. The preventers also must now have two sets of cutting blades to make sure they can cut through the drill pipe.
The rules also require closer monitoring of procedures for deepwater, high-temperature and high-pressure drilling as well as for high-risk operations in shallow water.
"We listened extensively to industry and other stakeholders and heard their concerns loud and clear -- about drilling margins, blowout preventer inspections, accumulator capacity, and real-time monitoring," said Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Janice Schneider in a statement. "This rule includes both prescriptive and performance-based standards that are based on this extensive engagement and analysis."
Just one day before the Obama administration announced the new regulations, the hazard investigation board issued a damning draft report that found a "culture of minimal regulatory compliance continues to exist in the Gulf of Mexico and risk reduction continues to prove elusive."
The board, an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents, said that the government hasn't done enough to make sure the drilling industry is taking steps to ensure safety.
"Offshore regulatory changes made thus far do not do enough to place the onus on industry to reduce risk, nor do they sufficiently empower the regulator to proactively oversee industry's efforts to prevent another disaster like the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill," the draft report said.
Hillary Cohen, communications manager at the investigation board, could not comment on the new regulations Thursday evening.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, a longtime opponent of offshore drilling near Florida's coast, praised the new rules.
"Florida's coastal communities depend on a clean and healthy ocean and we shouldn't jeopardize the state's economy or environment by gambling on operations that lack adequate safeguards," Buchanan said in a statement.
In 2011, Buchanan voted against opening Florida's coast to drilling and sponsored a bill that would ban Cuba from drilling for oil within 50 miles of Florida's coast.
"The legacy of the tragic Deepwater Horizon disaster is that safety, rigorous oversight and extreme caution should be exercised in building these deep-water rigs,"
Glenn Compton, president of ManaSota88, an environmental group in the Bradenton area, said he is amazed it took six years to finalize the regulations -- which he cautioned, are only as good as their enforcement.
"New rules are better than nothing," Compton said. "But a better solution would be to look elsewhere for oil than the Gulf of Mexico."
This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "6 years after Deepwater Horizon tragedy, U.S. issues new drilling rules ."