Oil explorers should be ready to overhaul a crucial piece of deepwater-drilling safety equipment, bringing their requirements up to aerospace standards, Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said today.

The Interior Department will issue a proposed rule by September updating regulations for blowout preventers (BOPs), the last-ditch safety devices perched on deepwater wellheads to prevent leaks. The agency has discarded its earlier plan to request additional information from the industry, which would have delayed action for months.

"Our plan had originally been to go slower," Hayes told a daylong forum discussing proposed improvements with industry. But the lessons from the Deepwater Horizon spill are clear, he said: "We have a good idea of where we want to go."

There are four concepts companies should expect in the new regulations, he said. Preventers will need to cut any equipment that comes in their way, sealing the well. Better sensors will be required, as will improved training for all crews. And blowout preventers need to be treated with respect given other sophisticated equipment.

"Like what you'd expect from a jet engine," Hayes said.

Many of these lessons were evident soon after the Gulf of Mexico spill began, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in his opening remarks. As they worked to close the preventer perched atop the Macondo well, and after the preventer's failure was complete, questions resounded.

"Why didn't we have the kind of sensors to understand what's happening inside the BOP?" Salazar asked. "How come there's no remote activation of the BOP? How about having another set of shear rams?"

The agency will also update rules governing the latticework of undersea pipes involved in offshore oil production, perhaps issuing a proposed rule by year's end. That rule could include a shift from a checklist of requirements to a more thorough life-cycle assessment, according to James Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Production rules have not been updated for two decades, and in its focus on improving oil drilling safety, BSEE does not want to be caught "fighting the last war," Watson said, invoking a favorite truism of his past employer, the Coast Guard.

The remarks came at a forum, held by BSEE, bringing regulators and industry together to discuss the rules necessary to prevent future blowout preventer failures.

Investigations found that the failure of a blowout preventer was a primary reason why the Deepwater Horizon spill spiraled out of control for months, eventually allowing 4.9 million barrels of oil to escape.

As oil and gas exploration has moved ever deeper, out into the alien, pressurized world found miles beneath the ocean, drillers often failed to improve the design of their safety technology to account for such harsh operating conditions. This inadequacy went largely unnoticed until two years ago, however.

The BOP on the Macondo well presented serial problems. Even before the well failed, its gauges gave uncertain pressure test data, confusing engineers on the surface. And once the pipe blew, the preventer's shears could not slice through the jagged pipe left in the rupture's wake.

Last December, the National Academy of Engineering released a suite of recommendations for how preventers and oil spill response could be improved. That report, along with reviews from the oil spill commission and industry recommendations generated by the forum, will form the basis of the proposed rule, officials said.

Many of these recommended changes, like dual shears, have already begun to be incorporated in newer BOPs on the market, Salazar said after his remarks. While the proposed rule will formalize these requirements, these manufacturers can "read the tea leaves," he said.

Offshore drilling will continue to go deeper, and the government has no choice but to adapt, Watson said.

"Drilling in the offshore is going to continue to be more challenging in the future," he said, "than it has in the past."