Royal Dutch Shell PLC's chief scientist will lead the new Center for Offshore Safety, an industry-backed group designed to help deepwater oil and gas operators maximize worker and environmental safety.

Charlie Williams, who is Shell's chief scientist for well engineering and production technology, becomes the group's first executive director since it was established nearly a year ago (Greenwire, March 18, 2011).

Its core function is to train auditors to assess the industry's compliance with new safety and environmental management system (SEMS) regulations put in place in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill nearly two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We have assembled the best and the brightest minds to help ensure we develop America's vast resources in the safest manner possible," Williams said in a statement this morning. "Our top priority is to develop practices and programs that will help operators perform at their very best in implementing safety and environmental management systems."

The new center is sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute but is overseen by the trade group's standards division, rather than its lobbying arm. The president's BP PLC spill commission in a report last year recommended the creation of an industry-run safety institute but warned it should be "separate from API or any other advocacy or trade association so that it can maintain its independence."

The center has recently expanded its audit tool to vet contractors as well as operators, a move that would go beyond the federal requirements, Williams said last month.

He said the organization has not finalized its budget, but it will likely include about 14 full-time staff. Its 22-member governing board includes operators, drilling contractors, service and supply contractors and trade association representatives.

At Shell, Williams helped develop high pressure, high temperature wells and specialized drilling and completion equipment in difficult deepwater conditions. He currently chairs the Joint Industry Task Force on Subsea Containment, is on the operating committee of the Marine Well Containment Project, the executive board of the Marine Well Containment Co. and the Interior Department's Offshore Energy Safety Advisory Committee.

"We welcome Williams to lead on this very important effort," API President Jack Gerard said in a statement. "His 40-year career has made his name synonymous with offshore safety."

The new Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement rules were modeled after standards established at API and are similar to requirements in other parts of the world that aim to force oil and gas companies to show that they and their contractors are identifying and managing risks that can lead to lethal accidents.

Many large companies that already implement similar safety programs took the new regulations in stride. But small operators and offshore contractors have had to do much more.

"It's not a prescriptive, check-the-box process," Williams said last month. "It's a different kind of audit."