Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

The 2025 Gulf of America Safety Compliance Leaders are ranked below according to the number of incidents of non-compliance (INCs) per facility inspection. To be ranked, a company must:

• operate at least 2 production platforms
• have drilled at least 2 wells during the year
• average <1 INC for every 5 facility inspections (0.20 INCs/facility inspection). This is a higher standard (fewer INCs) than in previous years.
• average <1 INC for every 10 inspections (0.1 INCs/inspection). Note that each facility inspection may include multiple types of inspections (e.g. production, pipeline, pollution, Coast Guard, site security, etc). In 2025, there were on average 3.2 inspections for every facility inspection.

Criteria: This ranking is based solely on BSEE’s published compliance data. The absence of timely public information on safety incidents (e.g. injuries, fires, pollution, gas releases, property damage) precludes inclusion of these data. Although Panel Investigations are conducted for fatalities, serious injuries, and significant pollution events, the last panel report was for an incident on 3/25/2022, and no information is available for any ongoing investigations. BSEE District offices investigate the more significant incidents that don’t qualify for panel investigations. These District Investigation reports are more timely, but some are not issued within 90 days of the incident. The District reports will be reviewed later in the year. Note that there were no occupational fatalities in 2025.

Observations:

• The overall inspection and INC results for 2025 were similar to those for 2024.
• The top companies performed better in 2025 than in 2024. In 2024, only 2 companies had INC/facility inspection ratios of <0.10 and only 3 had ratios <0.15. In 2025, all 6 of the performance leaders had ratios <0.15.
• All 6 of these top companies were also on the 2024 top performers list.
• Shell’s total INCs and INCs/facility inspection decreased by 73% and 78% respectively vs. 2024
• Cantium, which operates 85 shallow water platforms, has demonstrated that a shelf operator can be an outstanding safety performer. Cantium’s total INCs and INCs/facility inspection decreased by 50% vs. 2024
• Should fewer inspections be conducted at facilities that have such low INC rates? On the one hand, fewer inspections would reduce regulatory costs and transportation risks. On the other hand, there are benefits from BSEE inspection visits besides compliance enforcement. These include direct communication with offshore workers (including contractors) regarding regulatory policies and safety practices, witnessing safety tests, evaluating new technology, and assessing management system implementation and corporate culture at the facility level.
• Absent specific details on the violations, no attempt was made to weight the INCs. Although shut-in INCs are generally considered to be more significant than warnings, that is not always the case. For example, a component shut-in INC for a safety device that is marginally out of tolerance and is corrected on the spot may be less serious than a warning that is indicative of structural deterioration, poor maintenance, or organizational shortcomings.

Not meeting one of the activity level requirements, but nonetheless noteworthy, were the compliance records of LLOG and BOE Exploration & Production (younger than and unrelated to the BOE blog 😀). See their impressive results below: