Offshore Oil & Gas Exploration & Production - Safety & Environmental
Off-Shore Environmental and Safety practice requires that we address issues related to the SEMS regulations and the SEMS II regulations, when promulgated, on behalf of our clients that include:
- Provide advice regarding interpretations of the SEMS regulations and interfacing with BSEE on significant issues to maintain client confidentiality
- Perform SEMS regulation applicability determinations or implementation guidance for specific operations, work practices or equipment
- Review INCs and civil penalties for accuracy and consistency with the SEMS regulations and the SEMS PINC list and for possible defenses
- Appeal Shut-in INCs and/or civil penalties and argue the defense of those before the IBLA
- Mediate those actions that the parties agree can be mediated through the IBLA ADR program
- Represent operators or contractors in any criminal prosecution of violations related to the SEMS regulations.
Environmental and Safety Law matters in which the firm has or attorneys with the firm have been involved that are analogous to the SEMS regulations and the proposed SEMS II regulations include the following:
- Conducted process safety reviews of process modifications and designs
- Prepared emergency shutdown system plans for the product loading systems and portions of process
- Served as the Alternate Emergency Coordinator for a large commercial TSDF and responded to numerous major off-site and in-plant emergencies
- Conducted OSHA health and safety audits of the commercial hazardous waste TSDF operations
- Participated in corporate policy-making and safety planning activities.
On October 15, 2010, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) published the Final Rule for SEMS or Safety and Environmental Management Systems, in the Federal Register [30 CFR Part 250 Subpart S] – [75 FR 63610]. This Final Rule incorporates by reference, and makes mandatory, the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Recommended Practice 75, Third Edition, May 2004, reaffirmed in May 2008, also referred to as API RP 75. The SEMS compliance deadline was November 15, 2011, approximately 90 days ago.
The Safety and Environmental Management Systems regulations require systems to be developed and implemented that are similar to (1) the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) program that has been in place for onshore refining and chemical manufacturing facilities since 1992 and (2) the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Risk Management Programs (RMP) which have been in place in those same industries since 1996.
The Safety and Environmental Management System program consists of 13 elements, as follows:
- General Management Program Principles;
- Safety and Environmental Information;
- Hazards Analysis;
- Management of Change;
- Operating Procedures;
- Safe Work Practices;
- Training;
- Quality Assurance/Mechanical Integrity;
- Pre-Startup Review;
- Emergency Response and Control;
- Incident Investigation;
- SEMS Element Audit; and
- Documentation and Recordkeeping.
On September 14, 2011, proposed rules were published to revise the SEMS program and are now called SEMS II. The proposed SEMS II Rule requires (1) procedures to authorize any and all employees on the facility to implement a Stop Work Authority (SWA) program when witnessing an activity that creates a threat of danger to an individual, property, and/ or the environment, (2) clearly defined requirements establishing who has the ultimate authority on the facility for operational safety and decision making at any given time, (3) a plan of action that shows how operator employees are involved in the implementation of API RP 75, (4) guidelines for reporting unsafe work conditions related to an operators SEMS program, that provide all employees the right to report a possible safety or environmental violation(s), (5) guidelines for employees to request a BSEE inspection of the facility if they believe there is a serious threat of danger or their employer is not following BSEE regulations, (6) revisions that require operators with SEMS programs to engage independent third party auditors to conduct all audits of operators’ SEMS programs and that the independent third party (IP3) auditors must meet certain specific the qualification criteria and (7) additional requirements for conducting a Job Safety Analysis.