By Gary Gentile

June 1 - The US federal government will require immediate changes to offshore drilling operations while developing longer-term rules and inspection requirements as the result of a 30-day review conducted by the Interior Department.

The new rules include independent inspections of blowout preventers (BOPs), more stringent procedures regulating the displacement of drilling mud with sea water and new design requirements for the cementing and casing of wells -- all issues that arose from the April 20 explosion at the BP Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The report, released May 28, served as the basis for President Barack Obama's decision to extend a moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling for six months. Some of the recommendations will be implemented immediately, while others will require formal rulemaking, which could take several months.

The most urgent changes involve Minerals Management Service inspections of drill rigs. The agency has been criticized for relying on documentation to prove that required tests were done on the rig. Revised inspections will include "the witnessing of actual tests of BOP equipment." Interior will ask Congress for more money to hire more inspectors and inspection results will be made publicly available.

Another change to MMS announced May 28 was that Bob Abbey, director of the US Bureau of Land Management, would replace MMS director Elizabeth Birnbaum, who resigned from her post on May 27 after less than a year on the job.

Meanwhile, within 15 days, all operators of floating drilling equipment must report to Interior the configuration of BOPs and well control systems; BOP and well control system test results; BOP and loss of well control events, and BOP and well control system downtime for the last three years of drilling operations.

The new rules will require an independent third-party certification of all BOP stacks prior to the spudding of any new well. The re-certification must attest that the BOP stack will operate as originally designed and that any modifications made to the stack do not compromise it.

The certification must be made publicly available, part of a broad new mandate that more documents relating to the approval of drilling plans and equipment be publicly available.

BOP stacks will also be required to have two sets of blind shear rams spaced at least four feet apart. The shear rams are designed to cut through a drill pipe and seal the well bore.

But shear rams are unable to cut through welded pipe joints and might not function properly if drill tools are located inside the drill pipe. The redundant set of shear rams is designed to solve those problems. This requirement will require new regulations, which could take several months.

New rules will also be written to require standardized ports on all BOP stacks so any available remote-operated vehicle (ROV) will be able to use the port to manually activate rams if automated systems should fail.

New procedures will also be developed for replacing heavy drilling mud with lighter sea water during the process of temporarily shutting an exploratory well.

Within 120 days, Interior will establish new requirements for deepwater well control procedures. They include requiring that the BOP is closed during the displacement of drilling mud with lighter fluids such as sea water. This way, if the cement seals or metal casing should fail, oil and gas will be stopped before it enters the riser pipe.

Two independent barriers, including one mechanical barrier such as the rubber annulus in the BOP, will be required to be in place for each flow path.

A special "strike team" of experts will be created to examine a number of procedures relating to cementing. One issue that will be looked at is under what circumstances the use of cement bond logs is "feasible, practical and will increase safety."

Cementing is a key focus of the investigation into the Deepwater Horizon disaster. At a joint MMS/US Coast Guard investigative panel in New Orleans on May 28, BP employee Mark Hafle, who was in charge of designing the Macondo well, said he saw no reason to run a cement bond log test to ensure that the cement had properly hardened.

"Cement bond logs are often inconclusive" and only show whether there is a good cement bond, but not necessarily that there were problems with the cement job, Hafle said.

A representative of Halliburton, the company in charge of the cement at the Macondo well, has testified in Congress that a cement bond log is the only way to determine the effectiveness of the cement bond with the well casing.

Salazar is calling for his department to develop a new cementing standard which, the report states, means "less of a chance of a well blowout due to a poor cement job."

A technical working group is also being established to develop new ways to stop a blowout and handle escaping oil and gas from a blown well.

The group will determine if a well operator should have equipment on hand to properly monitor the flow from a blowout as well as pre-fabricated systems for containing the flow, such as a containment dome or the ability to use subsea dispersants.

Finally, another independent group will investigate safety training requirements for drill rig workers and possible requirements for more frequent testing and certification of workers and safety systems.