Offshore Safety and Environmental Regimes: A Post-Macondo Comparative Analysis of the United States and United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper analyzes selected offshore environmental and safety laws from the United States and United Kingdom. Particularly, examining alterations due to the Deepwater Horizon, or Macondo, incident. This paper bifurcates the two national regimes, as much as possible, into separate chapters, for clarity.United States environmental laws are reviewed and analyzed first. United States regulatory issues based on engineering concerns and the safety regime are analyzed in the second half of the United States Chapter. The analysis questions whether the United States has truly dealt with Macondo issues or if the issues were effectively tabled. The current state of the United States regime indicates that it is either in a transitional phase or it has failed to implement key measures to effectively utilize the post-Macondo regulations.The United Kingdom offshore safety and environmental legislation and regulations are reviewed prior to a discussion on changes in the United Kingdom regime that are attributable to the Macondo incident. The question of whether the United Kingdom is actively learning or rather playing the proverbial dog and pony show may be dramatic as a statement, but is nonetheless keenly to the point. A type of tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that the United Kingdom regime is fit for purpose, or everything here is ok, whilst simultaneously ordering large investigations seems contradictory in nature and is one form of issue that is addressed in the United Kingdom analysis. The importance of revisiting issues from the Macondo incident could be argued as self-explanatory given the dynamic nature of deep water exploration and the need to search deeper on the continental shelf in order to meet growing energy needs. However, whilst this paper was being researched and written a gas blowout occurred on the United States continental Shelf. Whilst the reason behind the blowout has not been publicly identified, it stands as a current reminder that the dynamic nature of offshore oil and gas needs continued study and regulatory refinement to keep pace with an industry that will continue to press into ever changing environments.