BSEE implementing risk-based inspections

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has announced that it is implementing a new risk-based inspection program for oil and gas facilities on the U.S. outer continental shelf. The bureau is layering the new program, which initiates facility inspections on the basis of risk assessments, on top of the existing program of regularly scheduled inspections.

Under the new program, BSEE will assign each facility a risk rating, based on an evaluation of potential high impact, low probability safety concerns associated with the facility, and on an analysis of performance indicators for the facility. Facilities with a history of non-compliance or of safety events, for example, may require more attention than other facilities, BSEE says.

“We developed this program to address areas where trends in compliance and incident data suggest the potential for imminent safety concerns,” said Jason Mathews, chief of BSEE’s Gulf of Mexico Region Safety Management Office.

BSEE says that in 2012 the Government Accountability Office had indicated a need for a program to assess the risks associated with specific offshore installations. The current administration has made the implementation of a risk-based program a high priority task, the agency says. An inspection program of this type will enable the bureau to continuously focus on regulatory compliance and reduce the likelihood of safety incidents occurring, BSEE says.

- ALAN BAILEY