Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

My experience is that you unfortunately often need a major accident or even a disaster to engender political support for streamlining regulatory regimes.   Moreover, history shows that major accidents apparently must happen in your own jurisdiction to have such an effect on political support. Magne Ognedal

Magne’s astute comment repeatedly came to mind while I was reading the Montara testimony.  Our political systems are good at reacting, but are not so good at making tough decisions when the spotlight is elsewhere.  Crises provide the political capital needed to make major changes, but seldom yield the best solutions.

Will the Montara blowout provide the impetus needed for other countries to review and improve their offshore regulatory regimes?  These Montara issues should be of concern to all of us:

1. Multiple regulators with unclear divisions of responsibility
2. Regulatory gaps and overlap
3. Ineffective use of standards and best practices
4. Lack of clarity regarding operator and contractor responsibility and accountability
5. Balancing goal-setting with prescription
6. Monitoring operations effectively without taking “ownership”
7. Applying regulatory resources efficiently and where the risk is greatest
8. Absence of meaningful performance measures for operators and regulators
9. Authority to remove rogue operators
10. Ability to update standards and regulations in a timely manner
11. Weaknesses in training programs for operators, contractors, and regulators

I’ll stop at ten (now eleven :)).

Many of these issues will be discussed at the International Regulators’ Offshore Safety Conference in Vancouver (18-20 October). I hope you plan to attend!