[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 139 (Thursday, July 18, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37493-37494]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-18267]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Minerals Management Service
Safety and Environmental Management Program (SEMP) on the Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS)
AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The MMS has postponed its decision regarding the mandatory or
voluntary adoption of the SEMP by OCS lessees. The MMS does not have
sufficient information to determine whether the voluntary adoption of
SEMP currently achieves the regulatory goals of the MMS. We will
continue assessing the oil and gas industry's progress in implementing
SEMP and will make a determination on this program in mid-1997.
DATES: Comments may be submitted at any time.
ADDRESSES: We welcome your comments on MMS' SEMP concept, the American
Petroleum Institute's Recommended Practice 75, OCS safety and
environmental protection issues in general, implementation strategies,
and related matters. Send comments to Henry Bartholomew; Deputy
Associate Director for Operations and Safety Management; Minerals
Management Service; Mail Stop 4600; 381 Elden Street; Herndon, Virginia
22070-4817.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jeff Wiese, SEMP Manager; Mail Stop 4800; Minerals Management Service;
381 Elden Street; Herndon, Virginia 22070-4817, telephone (703) 787-
1591.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
What Is SEMP?
The SEMP is a safety systems management model designed around
offshore oil and gas exploration and development activities. This
concept is currently embodied in a publication of the American
Petroleum Institute (API) known as Recommended Practice 75 (RP75). This
document is available from the API: they can be reached by phone at
(202) 682-8375.
How Did We Get to This Point?
The MMS introduced its SEMP concept in the Federal Register on July
2, 1991 (56 FR 30400). In response, OCS operators requested that they
be given an opportunity to further develop SEMP and a chance to
demonstrate that they could voluntarily adopt it. The MMS joined with a
broad-based industry committee to refine the SEMP concept under the
aegis of the API. In May 1993, the API published RP75 as its response
to SEMP. On June 30, 1994, the MMS published a notice in the Federal
Register (59 FR 33779) in which it said that RP75 generally captured
the agency's perception of what a SEMP should contain. At that time,
the MMS committed to a 2-year moratorium on regulatory activity related
to SEMP during which time it would closely monitor the voluntary
adoption of RP75 by OCS operators. The observation period officially
expires this summer.
Why Is the MMS Promoting SEMP?
The MMS and its predecessors have developed a sound regulatory
program to protect the public's interests in the exploration and
development of OCS oil and gas over the course of more than a quarter
century. This program is based, in large measure, on standards and
recommended practices developed in association with OCS stakeholders
that delimit how a ``safe and prudent'' operator would conduct its
business. This regulatory program has historically focused on hardware
and engineering solutions. It has been, as well, fairly prescriptive.
The SEMP concept was created to address the role of human and
organizational error to accidents. By some estimates, human and
organizational factors lie at the root cause of up to eighty percent of
all accidents.
Through SEMP, the MMS is seeking alternative ways to enhance
current efforts to protect people and the environment during oil and
gas exploration and production activities taking place on the U.S. OCS.
The MMS undertook this initiative following two separate, but related,
studies which indicated that OCS operators were led by the traditional,
prescriptive regulatory approach of the MMS to focus more on compliance
with existing rules than in systematically identifying and mitigating
all risks posed by their operations. Implementation of SEMP squarely
places the responsibility for protection of people, facilities, and the
environment on the shoulders of OCS operators.
How Well Is SEMP Being Implemented?
To gauge how well OCS operators were implementing SEMP, as well as
to identify areas in which the agency could assist them in this
endeavor, the MMS joined with the API, the Independent Petroleum
Association of America, the Offshore Operator's Committee, and the
National Ocean Industries Association to conduct an annual series of
surveys. The baseline implementation survey was conducted in January
1995 and a follow-up survey was performed in January 1996. About 95
percent of all OCS operators representing over 99 percent of total OCS
oil and gas production (over 3.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per
day) responded to this last survey.
Collectively, these surveys have shown that OCS operators--as a
whole--are well on their way to implementing SEMP plans that they have
been developing during the past 2 years. If progress similar to this is
maintained, the MMS expects that many of these companies' SEMP plans
will be fully implemented in the field within the next 1-2 years.
[[Page 37494]]
Has the MMS Fully Evaluated the Voluntary Adoption Approach?
No. Because the MMS strongly believes that the real value of SEMP
will be derived from field-level implementation of SEMP plans, we
believe it will be another year before we have enough evidence to
ascertain whether this regulatory approach will be a success. We have
every reason to believe it will be if OCS operators continue to develop
and implement their SEMP plans with due diligence.
What's Next?
The MMS will defer judgment on how successful voluntary adoption of
RP75 has been for 1 year. We have, however, identified a few goals that
we can pursue collectively with OCS operators during this time:
1. Work to broaden voluntary implementation to the few remaining
holdouts;
2. Accelerate, where feasible, field-level implementation of SEMP
plans;
3. Continue to promote greater understanding of SEMP through
cooperative efforts such as the joint workshops held during 1995;
4. Begin to develop reliable, commonly-defined measures of
performance; and,
5. Further explore regulatory reform for companies that
conscientiously develop, implement, and undertake to improve SEMP
plans.
Also during this time, the MMS will continue its efforts to
independently assess implementation of SEMP by meeting with OCS
operators on a voluntary basis to discuss their SEMP plans and by
talking to field-level personnel during routine inspections we conduct
of their offshore facilities.
(Authority: U.S.C. 1334)
Dated: June 26, 1996.
Carolita U. Kallaur,
Acting Director, Minerals Management Service.
[FR Doc. 96-18267 Filed 7-17-96; 8:45 am]
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