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BSEE issues final workplace safety rule New version of regulations includes several changes based on comments on agency’s requirements for a company’s safety program Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Following a public comment period, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, has published a final rule for its revised regulations requiring outer continental shelf oil and gas operators to implement safety and environmental management systems known as SEMS programs.
The SEMS regulations, originally introduced in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, closely match the oil industry’s own recommended practices for offshore oil and gas operations. They mandate the implementation of procedures for identifying potential hazards and for developing risk management strategies to address those hazards. And the SEMS regulations reflect an emerging BSEE policy of performance-based regulation, with the agency setting the required safety standards while allowing individual companies to figure out how to meet those standards. In the case of SEMS, a company must develop its own safety system and then have that system audited, to ensure that it meets the BSEE requirements.
“Offshore oil and gas safety starts with a robust positive safety culture, and BSEE’s workplace safety rules are designed to promote that culture by eliminating complacency and making sure that companies are looking at the human factors that underlie too many accidents,” said BSEE Director Jim Watson when announcing publication of the new regulations on April 4. “This effort takes another important step towards protecting workers and the environment from preventable accidents.”
Several changes The new version of the BSEE regulations incorporates several changes to the original SEMS rule, taking into account comments received from the oil industry, environmental organizations and the general public.
The revised regulations involve some additional requirements for identifying safety hazards. And auditing of a company’s safety management system must now be conducted by an auditor accredited under a BSEE-approved accreditation body. There are new requirements that give authority to order a work stoppage to anyone witnessing a dangerous situation. There is a definition for who has ultimate authority for safety and decision making on a facility. There is a requirement that operators must have plans to promote employee and management involvement in eliminating or mitigating hazards. And, under the revised regulations, all employees are empowered to report to BSEE possible violations of safety or environmental regulations, or threats of danger.
Under the original SEMS rule operators were required to implement a SEMS program by November 2011 and submit a completed audit of the program by Nov. 13 2013. The new rule goes into effect on June 4 but does not affect the audit cycle for operators who have implemented programs under the original rule, BSEE says.
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