The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Salazar Unveils New Drilling-Safety Rules

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704483004575523850819185026.html

›SEPTEMBER 30, 2010, 12:28 P.M. ET
By SIOBHAN HUGHES

WASHINGTON—Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday unveiled long-expected offshore-drilling and workplace-safety rules, and he indicated that the requirements were the first in a wave of new regulations on the offshore oil and gas industry.

The regulations, some of which formalize rules set up months ago in the aftermath of the BP PLC oil spill, establish procedures for cementing and casing underwater wells. The Interior Department will also propose requiring that equipment known as blowout preventers have a second set of blind shear rams—the parts that can shear off and shut down wells in the event of a catastrophic blowout.

"The oil and gas industry needs to expect a dynamic regulatory environment as we bring the U.S.'s offshore programs up to the gold standard," Mr. Salazar said.

The regulations are designed to prevent a repeat of the BP oil spill, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, and help meet one condition for lifting a four-month-old moratorium on deep-water drilling. The other two conditions that industry must satisfy are showing greater ability to contain a spill and the capacity to respond to a vast spill if one does occur.

The head of Interior's offshore-drilling agency, Michael Bromwich, will also propose improved instrumentation. Responders involved in the BP oil spill have said that they were operating blindly at times because of a lack of data about the situation a mile below the sea on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.‹