US close to revising offshore drilling safety rule

President Donald Trump's administration later this week is expected to complete a controversial overhaul to offshore drilling safety rules that were imposed in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The White House yesterday finished a four-month review of plans to revise the so-called "well control rule," a suite of regulations issued three years ago requiring offshore producers to follow more stringent standards for safety equipment, well design, recordkeeping and oversight when drilling offshore. The US Interior Department is expected to announce the regulatory changes on 2 May, according to an industry official familiar with the plans.

Interior did not immediately respond for comment.

The well control rule was put in place under former president Barack Obama after a years-long process meant to incorporate lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon accident that killed 11 workers and allowed an estimated 3.18mn bl of oil to flow into the US Gulf of Mexico. It required producers to regularly test the subsea "blowout preventers" are a last line of defense against blowouts and follow other new safety requirements.

Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement last year proposed a set of revisions to those rules that it estimated would save the offshore industry $946mn over 10 years but not reduce safety. The changes would affect the design of blowout preventers, drilling safety rules and the frequency of safety equipment testing.

But environmentalists and coastal state leaders worry the changes would pad profits for offshore producers while making another major oil spill more likely. They say the administration has failed to show why it needs to change regulations finished three years ago, many of which have not even fully taken effect.

The safety rule change comes as the administration works on a plan to allow offshore drilling on nearly all federal waters, including off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Alaska. Interior says that effort is now on hold after a judge's ruling cast doubt on part of that plan.