Bureau of Transportation Statistics March 30, 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of BTS to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve continuation of the following information collection: Barrier Failure Reporting in Oil and Gas Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). In August 2013, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and BTS signed an Interagency Agreement (IAA) to develop and implement SafeOCS, a voluntary program for confidential reporting of `near misses' occurring on the OCS. BTS has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BSEE to expand the scope of SafeOCS to include an industry-wide repository of equipment failure data, analyze and aggregate information provided under this program, and publish reports that will provide BSEE, the industry, and all OCS stakeholders with essential information about failure types and modes of critical safety barriers for offshore operations related to well control. The data collection effort that is the subject of this notice addresses the collection of failure data as referenced in recently issued BSEE regulations (81 FR 25887, April 29, 2016) and (81 FR 61834, September 7, 2016). BTS received permission to collect the data under an emergency OMB control number on September 29, 2016. Through this notice, BTS is requesting permission to continue this previously approved data collection. This information collection is necessary to aid BSEE, the oil and gas industry, and other stakeholders in identifying barrier failure trends and causes of critical safety barrier failure events.