BSEE clarifies response plan requirements

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE, has issued a notice to lessees clarifying the agency’s regulations for the preparation of regional oil spill response plans. A regional response plan spells out the oil spill contingency arrangements that an operator of offshore oil-related facilities has in place to deal with an oil spill within a specific region.

The new notice to lessees, issued on Aug. 10, clarifies the way in which BSEE applies existing response plan regulations, incorporating lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the agency says. The intent is to provide transparency in the plan review process and improve the efficiency of the process. BSEE says that since the Deepwater Horizon spill the agency has approved nearly 80 regional response plans using the approach outlined in the notice to lessees.

“The Deepwater Horizon response made it clear that existing oil spill response plans were not up to the task of containing and cleaning up a massive offshore blowout,” said BSEE Director James Watson. “We have been using our existing authority to require more robust plans for some time now, and this NTL clarifies that approach for the industry and the public. It will assist industry in preparing response plans that will provide for a rapid, effective response to a worst case scenario.”

BSEE says that it reviews each response plan to ensure that the proposed spill response strategy has the resources necessary to deal with the anticipated worst case oil discharge in the region covered by the plan. Required resources include capping and containment equipment for dealing with a subsea well blowout. As appropriate, BSEE will also consider incorporating into a plan a range of response strategies such as advanced mechanical response systems and in-situ burning, the agency says.

—Alan Bailey