New Orleans – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Oct. 12 cited BP, Transocean and Halliburton for violations related to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
BSEE issued 15 “incidents of non-compliance,” including one to each company for failing to protect health, safety, property and the environment by not performing actions in a safe manner.
The INCs are based on a September report (.pdf file) from the Coast Guard and the former Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which found that BP and the two contractors had violated federal regulations. (BOEMRE has since been reorganized into BSEE and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.)
This marks the first time the Interior Department has issued INCs directly to a contractor that was not the well’s operator. The companies have 60 days to appeal.
