US AUTHORITIES plan to regulate the contractors of oil companies who work offshore following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (Boemre), Michael Bromwich, said yesterday there was “no compelling reason or logic not to do so”.
During last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the role of contractors Halliburton, in charge of the cementing in the Macondo well, and Transocean, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig, came into sharp focus in addition to the role the BP played as operator. Under current practice Boemre and other regulators turn mainly to the operator as the company accountable for all offshore operations.
Mr Bromwich said in cases where violations by contractors were serious enough, however, the agency should also pursue them.