Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Brian Salerno said last week that he hopes to present to the industry and public new requirements for blowout preventers (BOP) by the end of the year. The new requirements comes more than three years after the Macondo disaster where the BOP failed. A forensic investigation of the BOP concluded that a powerful rush of oil and gas caused the drill pipe to buckle and shift, preventing powerful shearing rams from cutting the pipe and sealing the hole. In response to the disaster, which is the core of several legal fights now under way (p5), the nation's main BOP manufacturers are developing and selling new devices that have robust shearing rams and other designs to slash through thick pipe connections and debris. A new federal rule would give those voluntary changes the force of law.
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