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Vol. 232 No. 4 |
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HENRY TERRELL, CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
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It’s final. It’s mandatory. Get moving.
When implementing a SEMS for your MODU, FPS, FPSO or TLP, the I3P or DQP’s JSA may indicate the need for a CAP. Submit within 30 days, and don’t you forget it, Holmes. It’s the revenge of the acronyms, and Google doesn’t help. (SEMS, for example, stands for San Elijo Middle School.)
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE, destined to be shortened with a coming reorganization) met with about 500 offshore operators, contractors and consultants in New Orleans last month to try and clarify the Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) Final Rule, Subpart S, and to answer questions. There were many.
Judging just from this meeting, the seventh stage of mourning—acceptance—has set in. Or maybe it’s just a recognition that it’s time to get back to business. Just tell us the rules.
The Final Rule is really just API Recommended Practice 75, with one crucial difference—it’s mandatory, and it’s coming this fall to an OCS facility near you. As BOEMRE officials pointed out at the meeting, the RP has been in place for 20 years. Compliance has varied from very good to fair. Introduced in 1990, by 1994 some 80% of operators on the OCS had implemented RP 75 on their leases, covering 94% of production. Just two years later, 96.6% of operators participated, covering just short of 100% of production. This was the zenith of compliance, but after that, voluntary participation subsided steadily, reaching just 56% a couple of years ago.
The point is that RP 75 has been out there, and it’s been used. The industry is not as far away from this as people might think.
Culture change. SEMS has sometimes been referred to as a 12-element program, but another has been tacked to the front end, “general management program principles.” (For a detailed description of the rule, see “Bringing offshore rigs, platforms into compliance with new US workplace safety regulation,” page 47.)
BOEMRE officials say that the aim of the rule is to change culture, and they admit that “it’s going to slow people down.”
Regulations have usually addressed issues with equipment and systems, not the human element. “This is the softer side of the business,” an official said. “It’s not numeric, it’s how you manage. SEMS is a way to get the people more involved in carrying out their operation, document things and pay attention to what they’re doing.” Management must be on board, or the rule is just a document on a shelf.
BOEMRE will not approve SEMS—it is not the agency’s job to sign off on a lessee’s plan. It is the job of the lessee to implement a plan that adheres to the rule in detail and in spirit. If an operator has a system in place that covers all 13 elements but doesn’t look exactly like SEMS, then a bridging document can be submitted that directs the auditor to those elements.
Not the contractor’s problem. SEMS is for operators or lessees (I use these terms interchangeably) on the OCS. Contractors don’t need a SEMS plan. Who is a “contractor”? Basically, anyone who does work for the operator except domestic work—janitors and cooks. It is up to the operators to ensure that contractors have safe work practices (SWPs) in place that support the SEMS plan. There is nothing stopping contractors from developing their own SEMS (which could definitely make them more marketable), but the burden of compliance falls on operators. There must be an agreement between lessee and contractors, documented and signed, ensuring that the latter understand the SEMS, support it, and will comply with it.
Operators are required to perform periodic evaluations, “periodic” being whatever the operator’s SEMS designates as an acceptable period of time. What BOEMRE will be looking at is whether the operators do what they said they were going to do.
Audits. Within two years of the SEMS implementation, an audit is required, to be performed by designated and qualified personnel (DQPs) or independent third parties (I3Ps—other than Y2K, the only acronym I know with a number in the middle). BOEMRE might choose to participate in the audit, or conduct its own. An audit plan has to be submitted 30 days in advance, and should cover 15% of the operator’s facilities. Since it would not be that hard to game the system, to choose only the A students to audit, BOEMRE will make sure the sample is a realistic cross-section. As an agency official said, “We want to look at the new and the old, the deep and the shallow, oil and gas, manned and unmanned.”
Within 30 days following the audit, an audit report should be submitted that details observations and identifies deficiencies. In another 30 days, these deficiencies must be addressed in a corrective action plan (CAP). After the initial pass, audits are required every three years. However, BOEMRE may order one at any time. What might trigger an audit? Exactly what you think—poor performers, accident investigations, the monthly operator compliance report that is used to track “troublesome” facilities. There will also be “an element of randomness” to the audits. They can be announced (to give operators time to collect documents) or by surprise. An unannounced audit would most likely focus on one particular suspected problem.
Consequences. If BOEMRE determines that a SEMS program is not in compliance, then it may, in decreasing order of likelihood, issue an INC (incident of noncompliance), assess civil penalties, initiate probationary procedures or disqualify the lessee from serving as an OCS operator.
Question from the floor: If, despite an honest effort, an operator is unable to make the Nov. 15, 2011, deadline, will BOEMRE grant an extension?
Answer: No. 
SEMS timeline
Date Event
05/1991 API RP75 Published
06/2006 SEMS Advance notice of proposed rulemaking
07/2009 SEMS Notice of proposed rulemaking
10/15/10 Final Rule published
03/31/11 Submit Form-131 to BOEMRE
Yesterday Conduct Hazards Analysis on all OCS facilities
11/15/11 Mandatory implementation of SEMS
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