The American Petroleum Institute will launch a Houston-based offshore safety center, a decision that aligns with a recommendation from a presidential commission that investigated the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The new Center for Offshore Safety will be operated by API but will not be affiliated with the trade group's lobbying work. For decades, API has established guidelines and standards for the oil industry.

The center will "promote the highest level of safety for offshore operations, through an effective program that addresses management practices, communication and teamwork," said API President Jack Gerard.

The presidential commission previously suggested the center mirror the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, a nuclear industry watchdog established after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. The nuclear institute grants top safety performers with insurance breaks and kudos at an annual conference. Low performers are publicly shamed.

Questions still remain as to who will fund the offshore safety center. It will operate around an API safety framework, which requires companies do an assessment of operating and design requirements for a project, followed by a hazards analysis. Then companies are expected to set up safety and emergency response procedures, auditing programs and incident investigations.

The feasibility of a stand-alone institute accomplishing such goals is still unclear.

"But you know that old saying, 'the proof is in the pudding?' That's where it will be," said Frances Ulmer, a presidential commission member and chancellor of the University of Alaska, Anchorage. "Over time it will become clear to the people in the industry, to the public, to regulators, to the media whether or not this is a successful approach" (Fowler/Dlouhy, Houston Chronicle, March 17). -- PK