NEW YORK — Faced with questions about its commitment to safety, the Interior Department sent teams to the Gulf of Mexico last week to inspect giant cranes used in offshore oil and gas operations that are a significant source of accidents.
More than 50 inspectors, traveling on helicopters, conducted surprise inspections on about 40 offshore platforms and drilling rigs, said Jason Mathews, head of offshore safety management for the Gulf of Mexico at the department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
The results were still being compiled, he said, but the inspectors found serious problems, including some that were potentially life-threatening. “There are still some major incidents that are occurring, and we need to figure out why,” Mathews said Friday.
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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had discussed plans for the inspection push this month after the safety bureau issued an alert to offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf. It warned about a series of “potentially catastrophic crane and lifting incidents” that occurred late last year on platforms and drilling rigs.
No one was killed or injured in those crane incidents, but lifting-related accidents are the second-largest cause of offshore fatalities, outnumbered only by fires and explosions, agency records show. The cranes are used to move workers and supplies from the Gulf up to the decks of the platforms.
The Interior Department and its offshore safety bureau have been under a spotlight since the agency was ordered by President Trump to reevaluate regulations enacted during the Obama administration in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010. The accident killed 11 offshore workers and created the largest marine oil spill in drilling history.
Many offshore oil and gas operators, and other Gulf Coast businesses that serve them, complained that the regulatory response to the accident had been excessive.
The focus of the regulatory review has been two safety rules that govern offshore drilling and the production of oil and gas. But the deregulatory push has also meant that progress has slowed, if not stopped, on finalizing other safety rules, including a 2015 proposal to enact new standards for offshore crane safety.
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The New York Times reported this month that several of the independent companies seeking the regulatory rollbacks had been cited for workplace safety violations in recent years at a rate much higher than the industry average.
One worker did die in December on a drilling ship when a pipe-moving device — not a crane — crushed him.
The rate of lift-related offshore accidents last year increased by more than 4 percent, reaching the second-highest annual level in the past decade. On average, there was one incident for every 13.5 offshore platforms or drilling rigs, according to agency data.
Arena Offshore, Energy XXI, and Fieldwood Energy had joined with other offshore companies in 2016 to lobby the Interior Department to weaken certain offshore federal regulations, records show.
Last week’s inspections resulted in noncompliance notices for some offshore operators, which could bring fines, Mathews said. Among the serious and potentially life-threatening problems detected was a crane on a Fieldwood facility in the Gulf’s shallow waters that was being used in a way that exceeded its design specifications.
Arena Offshore and Energy XXI did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Fieldwood, which last month filed for bankruptcy, said, “We are constantly evaluating and enhancing our safety program and culture to ensure the safety of our employees and the environment.”
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