U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

MMS Issues Proposed Rule for Training Offshore Workers

        The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service recently issued a proposed rule for training lessee and contractor employees working offshore in oil, natural gas, and sulfur operations on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on April 20, 1999.

        The rule, the first true performance-based regulation, proposes to establish a training system that would lead to safer and cleaner OCS operations; allow the development of new and innovative training techniques; impose fewer prescriptive requirements on the oil and gas industry; and provide for increased training flexibility. It is consistent with the broader efforts of MMS to provide a regulatory framework for industry to achieve a high level of safety and environmental performance in the most efficient way possible.

        The MMS plans to use a series of performance measures to assess lessee and contractor performance related to their training programs. These measures may include audits, written tests, hands-on tests, and employee interviews.

        To solicit ideas from constituency groups, the MMS will hold a workshop June 10, 1999, in Houston, Texas. The workshop will be from 8:30 - 12:30 at the Sheraton Crown Hotel, 15700 John F. Kennedy Boulevard. For directions please call the Sheraton at (281)442-5100.

        MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf; and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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