CRS Insight – The Department of the Interior’s Final Rule on Offshore Well Control: “On April 14, 2016, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) released final regulations concerning blowout preventer systems and well control for oil and gas operations on the U.S. outer continental shelf. The regulations aim to reduce the risk of an offshore oil or gas blowout that could jeopardize human safety and harm the environment. The regulations draw on findings about the causes of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Building on previous regulatory reforms implemented after the 2010 spill, the well-control rule contains new requirements for the design, manufacture, repair, maintenance, and testing of offshore well-control equipment, particularly blowout preventers (BOPs), the assemblies of specialized valves installed on a well that are designed to close in the event of an uncontrolled release of oil or gas. A BSEE fact sheet summarizes the rule’s requirements…”