WASHINGTON— US Senator Bill Cassidy’s amendment to extend the continued operations requirement for offshore energy operators passed the US Senate Appropriations Committee and will be added to the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2017. The amendment will extend the continued operations requirement for offshore energy operators from 180 to 365 days.
“Offshore operators strive to design and execute well operations that are as efficient and safe as possible. However, the time to complete the process to drill a well has substantially increased—more complex wells are necessary to reach deeper and more difficult subsurface targets and additional regulation is required by BOEM and BSEE. This amendment allows operators adequate time to safely bring offshore wells into production.”
Background
When developing energy offshore, operators seek to amass adjacent acreages to warrant production in certain offshore areas. Current US Department of Interior regulations (30 CFR 250.180) stipulates operators must conduct active operations such as drilling, well-reworking, or production within 180 days or the lease-term expires.
As a whole, the offshore operators strives to design and execute well operations that are as efficient and safe as possible. However, the time to complete the process to drill a well has substantially increased as more complex wells are necessary to reach deeper and more difficult subsurface geological targets.
In order to give operators more time to safely develop and align blocks of acres to produce, Dr. Cassidy’s amendment extends the continued operations requirement from 180 to 365 days.
Dr. Cassidy has continuously cautioned against rushed-over prescriptive regulations from BSEE, worried that it could lead to unintended safety risks.
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