The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Thursday proposed new regulations targeting emissions from offshore oil and gas activity — the first such action on offshore emissions in more than three decades.
BOEM said the new regulations would modernize and strengthen requirements for identifying, modeling, measuring and tracking air pollutants while retaining key aspects of the current approval process for exploration and development. The rule would target emissions of VOCs, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter.
BOEM also said the rule would provide more accurate calculations of emissions from support vessels, which have been used more frequently as oil and gas activity has moved farther offshore. The regulations would account for long distances covered by those vessels rather than transit within 25 miles of a facility, as specified by current rules.
The American Petroleum Institute said the new proposal is unnecessary given BOEM’s own studies showing offshore emissions have no significant impact on onshore air quality.
“This is yet another agency piling on new regulations that could hinder domestic energy production and add untold costs to industry operations,” API Upstream Director Erik Milito said in a statement.
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