BOEM is charged with protecting the public from financial risks associated with the decommissioning of offshore facilities. Previous posts have addressed oil and gas facility decommissioning issues and proposed revisions to BOEM’s financial assurance regulations for those operations. Recent disclosures indicate that BOEM, which very publicly promotes the offshore wind projects that it regulates, has […]
Search Results for 'boem financial assurance rule'
Precedent setting financial assurance waiver significantly increases the public’s risk exposure
Posted in decommissioning, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, tagged BOEM, decommissioning, financial assurance, Vineyard Wind, waiver on January 18, 2024| 8 Comments »
Collective failure to protect the public from decommissioning liabilities; long past time to fix the financial assurance framework
Posted in decommissioning, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BOEM, BSEE, compliance, decommissioning, financial assurance, Matagorda Island on August 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
For the first time in the history of the US OCS program, Federal ontracts have been awarded for the decommissioning of facilities in the Matagorda Island area of the Gulf of Mexico. The use of taxpayer funds for this purpose should be an embarrassment for the offshore industry and its regulators, past and present. Rather […]
Another proposed decommissioning financial assurance rule is about to be published
Posted in California, decommissioning, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged BOEM, decommissioning, financial assurance, predecessor liability on June 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) today announced proposed changes to modernize financial assurance requirements for the offshore oil and gas industry, in order to better protect American taxpayers from incurring the costs associated with the oil and gas industry’s responsibility to decommission offshore wells and infrastructure, once they are no longer in use. […]
Offshore wind: New Bedford Light examines the glauconite challenge
Posted in decommissioning, Offshore Wind, tagged decommissioning, financial assurance, glaucomite, Offshore Wind, turbine foundations on May 22, 2024| 1 Comment »
Anastasia Lennon has published several informative articles in the New Bedford Light on the challenges posed by the presence of glauconite on North Atlantic wind leases. The above illustrations explain those challenges and identify where glauconite has been found to date. Per her latest article: Preliminary geotechnical analysis for New England Wind, an Avangrid project, […]
US offshore carbon disposal: And so it has begun…
Posted in CCS, climate, decommissioning, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged Bayou Bend CCS, BOEM, carbon disposal, DOI CCS regulations, EPA, Louisiana, Ocean Dumping, Texas on March 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Bayou Bend CCS LLC commenced drilling an offshore (Texas State waters) and an onshore stratigraphic well for carbon sequestration in the first quarter 2024. Talos Is offshore carbon disposal ocean dumping? One of the provisions that was slipped into the “2021 Infrastructure Bill” exempted carbon sequestration from the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of […]
GAO: “Interior Needs to Improve Decommissioning Enforcement and Mitigate Related Risks”
Posted in California, decommissioning, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged BOEM, BSEE, Cox, decommissioning, Fieldwood, GAO, Hogan and Houchin, offshore safety, predecessor liability, regulatory fragmentation, Signal Hill on February 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Offshore facility decommissioning is a frequent target of Federal auditors given the complex financial and regulatory challenges. Unfortunately, the reviews have done little to better protect the public interest. As have previous inquiries, the new GAO report (attached for your convenience) calls for improved regulations and enforcement practices. That, of course, has been the objective […]
California platform decommissioning takes a step backward
Posted in California, decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, tagged California, Decommissioning EIS, Hogan and Houchin, Milton Love, partial removal, platform habitat, reef legislation on December 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“These platforms are habitat for millions of animals. My opinion is that it’s immoral to kill huge numbers of animals in any kind of habitat.” Dr. Milton Love, UCSB marine biologist Inexplicably, BSEE’s Record of Decision (ROD) for the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Pacific OCS Decommissioning (EIS cost: $1,604,056) endorses such habitat destruction by […]
Report on the May 2021 GoM fatality is finally released, and there are many troubling findings. Were the regulations a contributing factor?
Posted in accidents, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, well control incidents, tagged accident investigation, BOEM, BSEE, fatality, Fieldwood Energy, Gulf of Mexico, Regulation, sustained casing pressure on November 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »
link: Investigation of May 15, 2021, Fatality, Eugene Island Area Block 158 #14 Platform Firstly, taking 2.5 years to publish an investigation report is unacceptable for an organization with BSEE’s talent, resources, and safety mandate. Unfortunately, such delays now seem to be the rule as the summary table (below) for the last 4 panel reports […]
Shortest comment period extension in the history of the OCS oil and gas program?
Posted in decommissioning, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged decommissioning, financial assurance on August 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is extending the public comment period on our notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), “Risk Management and Financial Assurance for Outer Continental Shelf Lease and Grant Obligations,” by 10 days. Federal Register These comments were submitted 7 days (now 17 days) early 😀 Federal regulations: “decades to draft, days […]
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