The Interior Department plans to move more swiftly on a handful of new rules to strengthen the safety of offshore oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico, the agency's top regulator announced this morning.

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director James Watson said the agency will also host a May 22 forum in Washington, D.C., to discuss ways to improve the reliability and safety of blowout preventers, the last -- and arguably most critical -- line of defense against an oil spill.

In addition to four rulemakings, the agency will soon issue a notice to oil and gas developers clarifying expectations for oil spill response activities, an area in which experts and former government officials say few advancements have been made following major spills of the past two decades.

"We are calling on the industry to move beyond simply purchasing more of the same equipment that has been available for decades, and to develop innovative technologies that increase the effectiveness of oil spill response equipment and to come up with new capabilities altogether that will significantly improve recovery operations should the worst-case scenario happen," Watson said at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Watson said a key component of his regulatory agenda in 2012 will be to accelerate development of new rules governing the design, manufacture and repair of blowout preventers (BOPs) and a draft rule to update oil and gas production safety systems regulations.

Citing recommendations of the president's Oil Spill Commission and the findings of both the National Academy of Engineering and Interior's own investigations, Watson said the agency will move directly to the rulemaking process rather than spend months gathering additional stakeholder input.

"Our analysis of those recommendations caused us to decide to move forward with the formal rulemaking process to address those issues, and provide a level of transparency and certainty for the industry and other interested parties so they can be appropriately involved in the process," he said.

Watson said regulations governing oil and gas production safety systems have not been significantly revised in more than two decades and have failed to keep pace with the technological advances of deepwater drilling. The rulemaking will address recommendations resulting from Interior's recent investigation into the BP Atlantis platform and will seek steps to increase equipment reliability, he said.

While Interior is already requiring new tests to verify the functionality of BOPs, the agency for at least a year has been mulling new standards in response to a forensic report issued early last year that found the blind shear rams on the BOP on BP PLC's Macondo well could not seal the drill pipe, which had buckled in the initial blast (E&ENews PM, March 23).

"A number of additional issues with BOPs -- arguably the most critical piece of safety and well control equipment on a rig ... need to be addressed," Watson said. "This is a rule that I believe is much needed, and we will work deliberately toward getting a draft rule published."

Watson said his agency hired an additional 28 engineers and 46 inspectors over the past two years and noted plans to hire more than 200 additional staff members to review permits and spill response plans and inspect offshore facilities.

He also praised authority recently granted by Congress to pay employees such as petroleum engineers up to 25 percent above the federal salary schedule, which many say is necessary to match lucrative industry salaries.

Click here to read a full copy of Watson's prepared remarks.