Content: Doug Slitor

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The SEMP is a nontraditional, performance-focused tool for integrating and managing offshore operations. The purpose of SEMP is to enhance the safety and cleanliness of operations by reducing the frequency and severity of accidents. The MMS has asked industry to voluntarily adopt SEMP.

The MMS has four principal SEMP objectives:

(1)  focus attention on the influences that human error and poor organization have on accidents;

(2)  continuous improvement in the offshore industry's safety and environmental records;

(3)  encourage the use of performance-based operating practices; and

(4)  collaborate with industry in efforts that promote the public interests of offshore worker safety and environmental protection.

Detailed Background
The SEMP was developed in response to the 1990 finding of the National Research Council's Marine Board that MMS's prescriptive approach to regulating offshore operations had forced industry into a compliance mentality. The Marine Board found further that this compliance mentality was not conducive to effectively identifying all the potential operational risks or developing comprehensive accident mitigation. As a result, the Marine Board recommended and MMS concurred that a more systematic approach to managing offshore operations was needed.

In response to the Marine Board findings, the API, in cooperation with MMS, developed Recommended Practice 75 - Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for Outer Continental Shelf Operations and Facilities. The API also produced a companion document, RP-14J, for identifying safety hazards on offshore production facilities. The API RP-75 was published in May 1993. In 1994, MMS published a Notice in the Federal Register that recognized implementation of RP-75 as meeting the spirit and intent of SEMP. The RP-75 was updated in July 1998 to focus more on contract operations, including operations on mobile offshore drilling units.

Since API RP-75 was first published, MMS has used public meetings, seminars, letters, research, and Federal Register notices to promote SEMP and to encourage voluntary implementation. Four OCS-wide, SEMP implementation surveys have been done by the API. The MMS has co-sponsored five widely-attended SEMP performance measures workshops, and we meet regularly with the principal industry trade associations to promote SEMP.

The SEMP is a process for coordinating OCS oil and gas operations that recognizes worker safety and pollution control are largely dependent on proper human behavior. The MMS has asked OCS operators to voluntarily make SEMP the way they do their business.

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Last Updated: 08/08/2008, 02:06 PM