The Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), issued a Final Rule regarding Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) – Revisions to Safety and Environmental Management Systems found in 30 CFR 250.

This final rule will revise and add several new requirements to regulations for Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS). These requirements pertain to developing and implementing stop work authority and ultimate work authority, requiring an employee participation plan, and establishing guidelines for reporting unsafe working conditions. The rule establishes additional requirements for conducting job safety analyses for activities identified in an operator’s SEMS program. In addition, this final rule requires that SEMS programs be audited by an accredited audit service provider. This rulemaking will further support BSEE’s efforts to reduce the occurrence of accidents, injuries and spills during oil and gas activities on the OCS.

Per the Federal Register notice, this is going to apply to operators of “DOI-regulated pipelines” (and presumably not DOT regulated pipelines). The consequence may be that some operators would rather become DOT regulated on the OCS now, as opposed to DOI regulated.

For a copy of the DOI Final Rule, contact Jessica Roger