BSEE expands SafeOCS program to reduce offshore incidents
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) announced the expansion of the SafeOCS program beyond near miss reporting to now include the confidential collection of equipment failure data in an effort to further reduce the risk of offshore incidents.
Effective immediately, the offshore oil and gas industry will have the option to submit equipment failure reports for well control equipment, required under the Well Control Rule (30 CFR 250.730(c)), directly through SafeOCS. Effective 7 November 2016, industry will be required to submit reports for pollution prevention equipment, required under the Production Safety Systems Rule (30 CFR 250.803), through SafeOCS as the Chief’s designee. All reports submitted through SafeOCS are collected and analyzed by the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and are protected from release under the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act.
“We are encouraging industry to quickly begin taking advantage of the SafeOCS expansion,” Brian Salerno, BSEE Director, said. “Shared awareness of safety trends better equips us all to quickly focus on emerging issues and thereby drive down the risk of serious incidents.”
In August 2013, BSEE and BTS signed an interagency agreement to develop and implement SafeOCS, as a voluntary program for confidential reporting of ‘near misses’ occurring on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Today’s expansion enables the SafeOCS system to be used to submit these required regulatory reports.
