(1) The goal is to ensure that employees who work in the following areas receive training that results in safe and clean operations:

(2) Drilling well control;

(3) WO well control;

(4) WS well control; and

(5) Production safety systems.

Production safety systems employees must complete training that enables them to install, test, maintain and operate subsurface safety devices.

You must give your employees documents that show they have completed the training course(s) required for their job. The employees must carry the documents or keep them at the job site.

You must ensure that applicable employees complete basic or advanced production safety systems training at least every 3 years. For example, if your employees complete production safety systems training on October 31, 1998, they must again complete the training by October 31, 2001.

You must ensure that your employees have at least the amount of training listed in the table in Sec. 250.1505. The maximum number of hours per day of well control or production safety instruction time is 9 hours.

Training hours for Production Safety Systems is 30 minimum hours with no options.

You must provide training by a training organization or program approved by MMS.

You can find guidelines in the subparts shown in the following table:

Only if you ensure that the employees complete training for the new job before entering on duty.

You must ensure that temporary employees and on-the-job trainees complete the appropriate training unless a trained individual is directly supervising the employee.

MMS may accredit a training organization or program.

Sec. 250.1518 What are MMS’s requirements for the written test?

(a) The training organization must:

(1) Administer the test at the training facility;

(2) Use 70 percent as a passing grade for each course element (drilling, well completion, etc.);

(3) Ensure that the test are confidential and non-repetitive;

(4) Offer a retest, when necessary, using different questions of equal difficulty;

(5) Allow open-book regulations and a formula sheet (without examples) for well control only; and

(6) Allocate no more than the following amount of time to the minimum instruction time: 1 hour for a single course, 2 hours for a combination of two basic courses, or 2.5 hours for a combination of three or more courses.

(b) A trainee who fails a retest must repeat the training and pass the test in order to work in the OCS in their job classification.

Subpart C--Pollution Prevention and Control

Sec. 250.300 Pollution prevention.

(a) During the exploration, development, production, and transportation of oil and gas or sulfur, the lessee shall take measures to prevent unauthorized discharge of pollutants into the offshore waters. The lessee shall not create conditions that will pose unreasonable risk to public health, life, property, aquatic life, wildlife, recreation, navigation, commercial fishing, or other uses of the ocean.

1. When pollution occurs as a result of operations conducted by or on behalf of the lessee and the pollution damages or threatens to damage life (including fish and other aquatic life), property, any mineral deposits (in areas leased or not leased), or the marine, coastal, or human environment, the control and removal of the pollution to the satisfaction of the District Supervisor shall be at the expense of the lessee
2. If the lessee fails to control and remove the pollution, the Director, in cooperation with other appropriate Agencies of Federal, State, and local governments, or in cooperation with the lessee, or both, shall have the right to control and remove the pollution at the lessee's expense.

(3) All hydrocarbon-handling equipment for testing and production such as separators, tanks, and treaters shall be designed, installed, and operated to prevent pollution. Maintenance or repairs, which are necessary to prevent pollution of offshore waters, shall be undertaken immediately.

(4) Curbs, gutters, drip pans, and drains shall be installed in deck areas in a manner necessary to collect all contaminants not authorized for discharge. Oil drainage shall be piped to a properly designed, operated, and maintained sump system which will automatically maintain the oil at a level sufficient to prevent discharge of oil into offshore waters.

(a) Drilling and production facilities shall be inspected daily or at intervals approved or prescribed by the District Supervisor to determine if pollution is occurring. Necessary maintenance or repairs shall be made immediately. Records of such inspections and repairs shall be maintained at the facility or at a nearby manned facility for 2 years.

Production safety equipment shall be designed, installed, used, maintained, and tested in a manner to assure the safety and protection of the human, marine, and coastal environments. Production safety systems operated in subfreezing climates shall utilize equipment and procedures selected with consideration of floating ice, icing, and other extreme environmental conditions that may occur in the area. Production shall not commence until the production safety system has been approved and a preproduction inspection has been requested by the lessee.

This subpart explains MMS's civil penalty procedures whenever a lessee, operator or other person engaged in oil, gas, sulphur or other minerals operations in the OCS has a violation. Whenever MMS determines, on the basis of available evidence, that a violation occurred and a civil penalty review is appropriate, it will prepare a case file. MMS will appoint a Reviewing Officer.

The maximum civil penalty is $25,000 per day per violation.

(a)Pipelines and associated valves, flanges, and fittings shall be designed, installed, operated, maintained, and abandoned to provide safe and pollution-free transportation of fluids in a manner, which does not unduly interfere with-other uses in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

(b) An application shall be submitted to the Regional Supervisor and approval obtained prior to the installation, modification, or abandonment of a pipeline which qualifies as a lease term pipeline (see Sec. 250.1001, Definitions) and prior to the installation of a right-of-way pipeline or the modification or relinquishment of a pipeline right-of-way.

Terms used in this subpart shall have the meanings given below:

DOI pipeline refers to a pipeline extending upstream from a point on the OCS where operating responsibility transfers from a producing operator to a transporting operator.

Lease term pipelines are those pipelines owned and operated by a lessee or operator and are wholly contained within the boundaries of a single lease, unitized leases, or contiguous (not cornering) leases of that lessee or operator.

Pipelines are the piping, risers, and appurtenances installed for the purpose of transporting oil, gas, sulphur, and produced water. (Piping confined to a production platform or structure is covered in Subpart H, Production Safety Systems, and is excluded from this subpart.)

(a) The lessee shall ensure the proper installation, operation, and maintenance of safety devices required by this section on all incoming, departing and crossing pipelines on platforms.

(b)(1)(i) Incoming pipelines to a platform shall be equipped with a flow safety valve (FSV).

(2)Incoming pipelines boarding to a production platform shall be equipped with an automatic shutdown valve (SDV) immediately upon boarding the platform. The SDV shall be connected to the automatic- and remote-emergency shut-in systems.

(3)Departing pipelines receiving production from production facilities shall be protected by high- and low-pressure sensors (PSHL) to directly or indirectly shut in all production facilities. The PSHL shall be set not to exceed 15 percent above and below the normal operating pressure range. However, high pilots shall not be set above the pipeline's MAOP.

(4) Crossing pipelines on production or manned nonproduction platforms, which do not receive production from the platform, shall be equipped with an SDV immediately upon boarding the platform. The SDV shall be operated by a PSHL on the departing pipelines and connected to the platform automatic- and remote-emergency shut-in systems.

Well -completion operations shall be conducted in a manner to protect against harm or damage to life (including fish and other aquatic life), property, natural resources of the OCS including any mineral deposits (in areas leased and not leased), the national security or defense, or the marine, coastal, or human environment.

When used in this subpart, the following term shall have the meaning given below: Well-completion operations means the work conducted to establish the production of a well after the production-casing string has been set, cemented, and pressure-tested.

Well workover operations shall be conducted in a manner to protect against harm or damage to life (including fish and other aquatic life), property, natural resources of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) including any mineral deposits (in areas leased and not leased), the national security or defense, or the marine, coastal or human environment.

When used in this subpart, the following terms shall have the meanings given below:

Routine operations mean any of the following operations conducted on a well with the tree installed:

(a) Cutting paraffin;

(b) Removing and setting pump-through-type tubing plugs, gas-lift valves, and subsurface safety valves which can be removed by wireline operations;

(c) Bailing sand;

(d) Pressure surveys;

(e) Swabbing;

(f) Scale or corrosion treatment;

(g) Caliper and gauge surveys;

(h) Corrosion inhibitor treatment;

(i) Removing or replacing subsurface pumps;

(j) Through-tubing logging (diagnostics);

(k) Wireline fishing; and

(1) Setting and retrieving other subsurface flow-control devices. Workover operations mean the work conducted on wells after the initial completion for the purpose of maintaining or restoring the productivity of a well.