Interior Dept. Cuts Oil Drilling Paperwork—Less Ink, More Drilling?
Published Date: 2/23/2026
Proposed Rule
Summary
The Department of the Interior is updating rules for oil and gas drilling safety in the Outer Continental Shelf to make reporting easier and clearer. These changes mainly affect companies drilling, working over, or closing wells by cutting down on repeated paperwork. You’ve got until March 25, 2026, to share your thoughts, but no big cost changes are expected.
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Stop Duplicate Failure Reports
If you operate offshore wells, you no longer must send duplicate written failure reports to BSEE when BSEE has designated a third party to collect those reports. Instead, you must provide the written notice of equipment failure to the designated third party (and to the equipment manufacturer) within 30 days after discovery and identification of the failure.
More Time to Start Failure Analysis
If you experience BOP equipment failure, you must start an investigation and failure analysis within 120 days of the failure (changed from 90 days) and complete the investigation and analysis within 120 days after initiation. If you cannot complete the analysis in that time, you must submit an extension request to the Office of Offshore Regulatory Programs (OORP) chief.
Keep Third-Party Qualifications On File
Operators must retain independent third-party qualifications for the life of the project and make them available to BSEE on request, instead of routinely submitting those qualifications to BSEE up front. The independent third party must be a technical classification society, a licensed professional engineering firm, or a registered professional engineer capable of providing required certifications and verifications.
Estimated Industry Cost Savings
BSEE estimates the proposed revisions would save industry a total of $434,412 over a 10-year period (undiscounted) and an annualized undiscounted savings of $43,441 per year. Discounted savings are $381,679 at 3% and $326,471 at 7% over the 10-year period.
Agency Certifies Limited Small-Business Effect
The Department certifies that, if finalized, the rule is unlikely to have a significant economic effect on a substantial number of small entities under the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The rule therefore will not require the agency to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis for small businesses.
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Key Dates
Department and Agencies
Related Federal Register Documents
2026-16751, Agency Information Collection Activities; Oil and Gas Drilling Operations
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The Department of the Interior (DOI or Department), acting through BSEE and BOEM (collectively, "the Bureaus"), is proposing to revise its existing regulations for exploratory drilling and related operations on the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), to reduce unnecessary burdens on stakeholders while ensuring that energy exploration on the Arctic OCS is safe and environmentally responsible.\1\ This proposed rule would revise certain requirements promulgated through the rule entitled, Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations on the Outer Continental Shelf--Requirements for Exploratory Drilling on the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf ("2016 Arctic Exploratory Drilling Rule") (see 81 FR 46478). This proposed rule would modify existing Arctic OCS blowout preventer (BOP) real-time monitoring requirements and add new provisions to BSEE's regulations pertaining to requirements for crane operations on artificial islands, suspensions of operations (SOO), and suspensions of production (SOP). This proposed rule would also revise certain parts of the Exploration Plan (EP) and Development and Production Plan (DPP) regulations implemented by BOEM. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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