The Safety and Environmental Management System Rule

Abstract

Abstract In October 2011 the United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) introduced its Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS) rule. It became effective November 15th 2010; companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) under the jurisdiction of BOEMRE must be in compliance with its requirements by November 15th 2011. The rule is based on the Safety and Environmental Program (SEMP), which is part of the API (American Petroleum Institute) Recommended Practice (RP) 75 (API 2004). RP 75 was first published in 1994; the most recent edition is from the year 2004. The SEMS rule is lengthy and its requirements are demanding. Not only has BOEMRE incorporated SEMP into law, the agency has added many additional requirements, some of which are quite substantial. (Hence, the statement " SEMS is SEMP?? is somewhat misleading — there is a lot more in SEMS than there is in SEMP.) The timing of the rule is particularly demanding — particularly for those companies and facilities that do not currently have an up to date SEMP in place. The manner in which the new rule will be enforced is also important. It is likely that BOEMRE will be considerably more assertive in enforcing rules and standards than was its predecessor, the Minerals Management Service (MMS). For example, although the moratorium over new deepwater drilling that was put in place following the Deepwater Horizon event has been lifted, the agency has continued to make it very difficult for companies to actually obtain permits. This paper provides a brief historical background as to how SEMS came to be. It goes on to discuss the requirements of the rule, and then provides some guidance as to how its requirements can be addressed in an expedient and defensible manner, particularly by those companies who do not already have a complete SEMP in place. Finally, it should be noted that, when the original Abstract for this paper was being written, the SEMS rule had not been promulgated. Some of the assumptions made at that time — such as a requirement for Production Safety Cases — did not materialize. It is likely that the SEMS rule, along with some of its associated standards, will change some more over the course of 2011 and 2012. Therefore, it is very important that anyone who is implementing or running a SEMS program check to see if the rule has been updated, or if any material changes have been made to the pertinent API standards. Historical Background The development of Formal Safety Management systems for offshore facilities can be said to have started with the Piper Alpha catastrophe that occurred in 1988. Of course, companies working offshore had had safety programs before that time, but Piper Alpha is often viewed as being the starting point for the development of formal Safety Management Systems for offshore operations — world wide. This development is illustrated in Figure 1.