Petroleum industry concerned about safety, too

And another fact: the American Petroleum Institute was founded on the goal to improve safety and performance standards in the U.S. oil and natural gas industry. For almost 100 years, in collaboration with the government, we have developed and promoted industry standards and practices that are recognized around the world and routinely incorporated into international and federal regulations. These standards are developed using the best experts, through an open and transparent process, which is accredited by the same organization that oversees our national labs. 

The regulatory system for overseeing offshore regulations is, as Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar has noted, one of the most exhaustive and stringent in the world, combining both prescriptive and performance based requirements to achieve high-levels of operational performance.  At least 27 statutes, 88 regulatory parts, and 24 significant approvals and permits are required throughout the various stages of offshore development. 

Our energy reality is easily lost in the political debate. 

The U.S. relies on oil and natural gas for 60 percent of its energy needs, and government estimates show that will continue for several decades.  Fortunately, we have domestic resources that can help us meet that demand, particularly if areas currently off-limits to production are opened: the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and ANWR.

{mosads}This is good news for our country. A recent study by Wood Mackenzie found that by 2025, opening those areas would create a half million jobs and provide $150 billion to the federal treasury in rents, bonus bids, royalty payments and taxes. Already the oil and natural gas industry pays about $95 million dollars a day to the federal treasury.

But that’s a fact that could change, if oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas is prohibited, limited or delayed.  We are already seeing significant impacts from permitting delays, with the Energy Information Administration revising its estimates for domestic production considerably downward from 2011 through 2018.  This year could be the first year with no Gulf lease sale since 1964.  

But our future does not have to be one of less; it can be one of more — more domestic energy and more safety.  Immediately after the Gulf accident, before investigators held their first meeting, the industry looked for ways to get safer in prevention, containment and response, emphasizing the areas of research, planning, equipment, procedures, and training.         

The result of that emphasis: the industry has held workshops on the implementation of a “safety case,” produced new guidance on well cementing, begun a new standard on deep water well construction, seen its safety management practices adopted into government rules, launched an industry-funded enterprise on state-of-the-art well containment systems, and initiated work on a new, independently-audited safety body. 

Producing energy safety has always been our first priority, and many of the recommendations being advanced by the Washington Post and the commission are already being carried out by industry and government.  Operations in the Gulf are safer today.  That’s important, first and foremost for the men and women who manage the risks to produce the energy for the benefit of all Americans. 

Those are the facts.

We believe these changes, along with carefully improved regulations, represent real progress on safety.  More than that, we believe they will do more to enhance offshore safety and prevent another tragedy than anything else that will be done.

Jack N. Gerard is president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and natural gas industry.