Three years after the Macondo accident, more than 80 percent of top oil executives believe that regulation will get a lot tougher in the coming years.  More »

Oil and gas companies working offshore have until June 4, 2015 to let outside auditors examine their new government-mandated safety programs, but right now, there aren’t any investigators qualified to do the job, experts said Thursday.  More »

Federal regulators are on track to propose new standards for boosting the reliability and performance of emergency devices safeguarding offshore wells later this year — but that doesn’t mean the industry will have to comply overnight.  More »

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director James Watson talks about coming new regulations with FuelFix ahead of a speech at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.  More »

When Interior Secretary Sally Jewell worked in the oil patch three decades ago, she was a pioneer who put up with a nearly all-male work force and Hustler pin-ups at drill sites. While overt sexism may have left the oilfield in the 32 years since, there still aren’t a lot of women in it. Ditto for people of color. “The industry has some work to do,” Jewell said.  More »

A major shortcoming in the oil industry’s first full-scale deployment drills of emergency equipment meant to rein in runaway wells may be that the simulated wellheads deep in the Gulf of Mexico aren’t actually gushing oil and gas during those tests.  More »

Private businesses aren’t the only ones searching for talent at the Offshore Technology Conference. Federal regulators also are recruiting engineers and would-be inspectors to join their ranks.  More »

A week-long drill testing how the oil industry and federal regulators would respond to an out-of-control Gulf of Mexico well wrapped up late Monday, with government officials deeming the exercise a success.  More »

The nation’s top offshore drilling regulators will visit the Offshore Technology Conference on Wednesday to tour the massive exhibit floor where more than 2,000 companies have their wares on display. The newly sworn-in interior secretary, Sally Jewell, will make an appearance, alongside Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement director James Watson and Tommy Beaudreau, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.  More »

For years, offshore drilling foes have filed lawsuits challenging oil and gas development in areas around Alaska, but now that litigation is moving to new territories, potentially threatening activity in the Gulf of Mexico, a former regulator told the Offshore Technology Conference on Tuesday.  More »

In deep Gulf of Mexico waters on Tuesday, federal regulators and the oil industry launched a drill meant to test whether emergency equipment and first responders are ready to tackle an out-of-control subsea well.  More »

Companies soon will be required to submit the results of these audits to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as a part of the overhaul of safety regulation in the Gulf of Mexico.  More »