Obama Requests $204.7M Budget for BSEE

President Obama requested  $204.7 million for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) in fiscal year 2016 as part of an effort to enable the BSEE to keep pace with deepwater oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.

According to the BSEE's Office of Public Affairs, there were 69 deepwater rigs and non-rig units working in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of 2014, up from 40 at the start of the year. The Energy Information Administration forecasts offshore production will continue to grow through 2040, as large development projects, predominantly in the deepwater and ultra-deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico, are brought into production.

“Funds will be used to recruit expert engineers, scientists, inspectors and oil spill prevention specialists to support the development of risk-based approaches to oversight and compliance on the Outer Continental Shelf," said BSEE Director Brian Salerno.

The Bureau will bolster its capacity for analyzing data gained through incident reporting requirements, near-miss reporting, and real-time monitoring.

The 2016 budget request includes an increase of $1.7 million to establish the Engineering Technology Assessment Center to support the evaluation of new technologies and develop associated safety and oversight protocols.

The President’s budget also proposes $14.9 million for oil spill research, equal to the 2015 enacted level.