OCS Incident Tracking

The Bureau and the oil and gas industry work cooperatively to protect our environment and to keep workers safe. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) operators and lessees are required to report incidents related to OCS operations to the Bureau including: fatalities, injuries, explosions, fires, lose of well control, collisions, pollution, and other incidents. The Bureau tracks, investigates, and analyzes the incident information to identify the causes, trends, and safety concerns. The Bureau uses this information to identify appropriate actions to enhance safety and environmental protection on the OCS.

Incident Reporting Requirements

In order to more effectively identify incident trends and safety concerns the Bureau recently revised the regulations for incident reporting. The Final Rule (FR 19640) (173.44 KB PDF) for these regulations was published on April 17, 2006 and became effective on July 17, 2006. This new rule will result in more consistent reporting and the collection of more reliable data. More information about the new rule can be found on the Incident Reporting Requirements webpage.

The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act requires either the Bureau or the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to prepare a public report for all deaths, serious injuries, major fires, and major oil spills that are related to OCS exploration, development, and production operations. The most recent Memorandum of Agreement (1.69 MB PDF) signed by both the Bureau and the USCG in March 2009 provides guidelines that identify, in the case of an incident, which agency should conduct the investigation and prepare the report. The Bureau also investigates less serious incidents to identify potential safety concerns. Investigation reports for incidents that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico Region (GOMR) are available on the GOMR Website.