Public Comment Period Open Until Early July -

On May 11, 2018, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced proposed revisions to the Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf ? Blowout Preventer Systems and Well Control Rule(commonly referred to as the “Well Control Rule”). Industry objected that the 2016 Well Control Rule failed to account for best available, economically feasible safety technologies and that certain proposed requirements were neutral in benefit but would render some wells uneconomical. Indeed, certain of the 2016 proposals failed to follow consensus industry standards that BSEE participated in creating and could have led to unintended reductions in safety. The new proposal amends regulations concerning well design, well control, casing, cementing, real-time monitoring, and subsea containment that were implemented in 2016 in response to the Deepwater Horizon/Macondo incident. The deadline forinterested parties to comment to BSEE on the proposed regulations is July 10, 2018. It is not known whether the comment period will be extended.

The oil and gas offshore industry undertook a number of initiatives to improve deep water drilling safety in the wake of the Macondo incident, resulting in new and effective industry standards for deep water drilling such as those contained in American Petroleum Institute (“API”) standards on well control and blowout preventer systems. BSEE’s Well Control Rule incorporated some of these technical standards, but adopted others that did not take into account best available and economically feasible technologies. At the time the Well Control Rule was enacted, operators and other stakeholders vigorously expressed a variety of concerns about some of the regulations that contradicted existing technical expertise without enhancing safety and environmental protection.