Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf; Availability, Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, 80717 [2010-32173]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
• Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement

[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 246 (Thursday, December 23, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 80717]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-32173]



[[Page 80717]]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement

30 CFR Part 250

[Docket ID: BOEM-2010-0034]
RIN 1010-AD68


Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer 
Continental Shelf; Availability, Initial Regulatory Flexibility 
Analysis

AGENCY: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement 
(BOEMRE), Interior.

ACTION: Availability of an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis.

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SUMMARY: In the Federal Register of October 14, 2010, BOEM published an 
interim final rule implementing certain safety measures recommended in 
the report entitled, ``Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development 
on the Outer Continental Shelf'' (Safety Measures Report). The 
President directed the Department of the Interior to develop the Safety 
Measures Report to identify measures necessary to improve the safety of 
oil and gas exploration and development on the Outer Continental Shelf 
in light of the Deepwater Horizon event on April 20, 2010, and 
resulting oil spill. To implement the practices recommended in the 
Safety Measures Report, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 
Regulation and Enforcement is amending drilling regulations related to 
well control, including: subsea and surface blowout preventers, well 
casing and cementing, secondary intervention, unplanned disconnects, 
recordkeeping, well completion, and well plugging.
    This document provides the official BOEMRE notice of availability 
for the Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) for that interim 
rule and provides opportunity for comment.

DATES: Submit comments by January 24, 2011. BOEMRE may not fully 
consider comments received after this date.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on the IRFA by any of the following 
methods. Please use the Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) ``1010-AD68 
IRFA'' as an identifier in your message.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In 
the entry titled ``Enter Keyword or ID,'' enter BOEM-2010-0034 then 
click search. Follow the instructions to submit public comments and 
view other supporting and related materials available for this Notice. 
BOEMRE will post all comments for this IRFA.
     Mail or hand-carry comments to the Department of the 
Interior; Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and 
Enforcement; Attention: Regulations and Standards Branch (RSB); 381 
Elden Street, MS-4024, Herndon, Virginia 20170-4817. Please reference 
``Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer 
Continental Shelf, 1010-AD68, IRFA'' in your comments and include your 
name and return address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amy C. White, Bureau of Ocean Energy 
Management, Regulation and Enforcement, Office of Offshore Regulatory 
Programs, Regulations and Standards Branch, 703-787-1665, 
amy.white@boemre.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This Notice is published pursuant to 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 603) as a matter of information to 
the public and to solicit comments on the analysis for the Interim 
Final Rule, Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the 
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The preparation of this IRFA is an 
important step in the process for compliance with the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act (RFA). The RFA requires agencies to consider the impact 
of their regulatory proposals on small entities, analyze alternatives, 
and make the analysis available for public comment.
    BOEMRE has updated the estimated compliance costs and small 
business impacts from the projections reported in the Regulatory 
Flexibility Analysis of the Safety Measures Rule. These changes are 
minor and mostly result from updated categorization of companies 
operating on the OCS and analysis of the number of wells drilled by 
small and large companies rather than only by lease ownership.
    Our updated analysis shows there are currently about 140 Operators 
of Federal oil and gas OCS leases. Small entities that operate under 
the requirements of the Safety Measures Rule are coded under the Small 
Business NAICS codes 211111, Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas Extraction 
and 213111, Drilling Oil and Gas Wells. For these NAICS code 
classifications, a small company is one with fewer than 500 employees. 
Based on this criterion applied to the NAICS codes, approximately 90 
(64 percent) of the companies operating on the OCS are considered small 
companies and 50 (36 percent) are considered large companies.
    We estimate that about 90 percent of the regulatory costs will be 
imposed on deepwater lessees where small businesses only hold 8 percent 
of the leases and drill 12 percent of the wells. About 10 percent of 
the total costs will apply to shallow water leases where small 
companies hold 45 percent of OCS leases and also drill 45 percent of 
the wells. As a share of fiscal year 2009 revenues, this interim final 
rule is estimated to cost approximately 0.57 ($0.156/$27.2) percent of 
OCS revenue for large companies and 0.66 ($0.027/$4.1) percent for 
small companies.
    The analysis can be obtained through the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the entry titled ``Enter Keyword 
or ID,'' enter BOEM-2010-0034 then click search. You may also request a 
copy through Amy C. White, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, 
Regulation and Enforcement, Office of Offshore Regulatory Programs, 
Regulations and Standards Branch, 703-787-1665, amy.white@boemre.gov.
    Comments on this IRFA will be considered and any changes to the 
regulation as a result of these comments will be included in the RIN 
1010-AD68, Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the 
Outer Continental Shelf when the final regulation is published. The 
Safety Measures Rule was published in the Federal Register on October 
14, 2010 (75 FR 63346) and comments are being accepted on the rule 
until December 13, 2010.

    Dated: December 6, 2010.
Robert P. LaBelle,
Acting Associate Director for Offshore Energy and Minerals Management.
[FR Doc. 2010-32173 Filed 12-22-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P