LAFAYETTE, La. – Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Scott Angelle is moving the Outer Continental Shelf energy program toward energy dominance for America. Angelle discussed the work underway at BSEE with industry members at the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association Fall Meeting Tuesday in Lafayette.
“We are in a time of change,” explained Angelle. “Now is the time to move beyond the goal of energy independence to energy dominance.”
Discussing the steps that BSEE is taking to move forward, Angelle said that regulatory reform, integrating a risk-based protocol into the inspection program, and reviewing permit processes to increase efficiency are all efforts underway at BSEE.
“BSEE is clearly moving from creating hardships to creating partnerships, from an era of isolation to an era of cooperation,” Angelle said. “To safely develop our OCS energy resources as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act requires, BSEE and industry must work together as partners recognizing that we have different roles, and collaborating to make it happen.”
More than 88 companies explore and produce energy on the Outer Continental Shelf, which accounts for one of every six barrels of oil produced in the United States. With 98 percent of all OCS energy produced in America coming from the Gulf of Mexico, Angelle stressed that to have robust OCS production, it must be done safely and in an environmentally sustainable way.
“As industry’s partner, BSEE can’t control commodity prices but we can affect lifting costs,” he said. “Every action BSEE takes must be something that makes sense and makes America great.”
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