Regulators Launch New “Stop Work” Safety Rules for Oil Rigs

Since the BP oil explosion of 2010, federal regulators have been trying to increase safety for workers on board oil rigs and platforms. The federal administration has established a series of new safety regulations, and oversight of oil and gas drilling companies has increased. As part of the move to enhance safety on the waters, the administration recently launched new requirements that would keep workers even safer.

The Interior Department has now announced workplace safety rules that would require companies to develop procedures that would mandate that any worker on an oil-rig that notices unsafe activity can immediately call for a stop work notice on the rig.

These rules add to the current existing work safety rules that require companies to submit detailed plans about their planned procedures for preventing accidents on board rigs.

Under the new finalized rules, the companies are also required to commission third-party safety audits, and these must be submitted to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is responsible for offshore safety.

The Interior Department estimates that these new rules will possibly cost the industry about $17 million annually. Any offshore injury lawyer is aware that $17 million for the industry is worth less than peanuts. In other words, this industry is hardly likely to be severely challenged by these expenses.

Offshore industry experts say that the industry has already implemented a number of rules and regulations to avoid repeats of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and will not hesitate to implement these new rules too.

The Texas offshore injury lawyers at Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, L.L.P., Accident & Injury Lawyers represent offshore oil rig and platform workers who have been injured in accidents in the Gulf of Mexico.