Offshore Accidents, Regulations and Industry Standards

Abstract

Abstract Major offshore accidents, like the Macondo blowout, receive an enormous amount of publicity and are instrumental in enacting new and/or revised industry standards and governmental regulations. This paper reviews four major offshore accidents that occurred prior to 1988, and the effect that these accidents had on improving the reliability and safety of offshore operations. There had not been any significant offshore accident in more than twenty years. The absence of accidents, coupled with technological advances in being able to drill and produce in ever deeper waters, had gradually changed the public's perception of the safety of offshore drilling and had lessened the opposition for exploration in new offshore areas. All this has come to a halt with the 2010 Macondo blowout. The industry, unprepared to rapidly contain the Macondo blowout, will now be subject to new regulations and be required to develop a rapid containment capability. The paper summarizes how regulations and industry standards evolved prior to 1988. Oil spills caused by drilling blowouts resulted in improved drilling procedures and regulations. Platform accidents caused by fires and explosions in process facilities resulted in mandatory subsurface safety valve requirements, regulatory inspection and compliance programs, the API RP 14C process facility reliability standard and the voluntary, now mandatory, SEMP program. Accidents in the North Sea led to regulatory requirements for platform risk management programs. The implementation of these regulations and industry standards resulted in significant improvements in the reliability and safety of offshore operations as evidenced by the absence of significant accidents over the past two decades. The paper also summarizes the background of the 2010 Macondo blowout and the new U.S. government regulations that will affect future offshore drilling and production operations in the Gulf of Mexico.