OCS - Related Incidents

Minerals Management Service

United States Department of the Interior

Content:
Melinda Mayes

Pagemaster:
Marcia Oliver

Tracking OCS Events

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the oil and gas industry work cooperatively to protect our environment and to keep workers safe. One method of monitoring the success of this effort is to identify accident trends and safety concerns. The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act requires either the MMS or the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to prepare within 30 days a public report for all deaths, serious injuries, major fires, and major oil spills resulting from OCS exploration, development, or production operations.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed by both the MMS and the USCG in December 1998 provides guidelines that identify, in the case of an incident, which agency should conduct the accident investigation and prepare the report. To help in this effort, regulations require that lessees and operators notify MMS or USCG of serious incidents associated with any activities or operations on their lease(s). MMS inputs all of these reported incidents into a database for tracking and identifying trends that may warrant safety alerts.

Each year, MMS compiles a comprehensive report that lists all OCS-related incidents under MMS jurisdiction that occurred during the calendar year. These reports entitled "Incidents Associated with Oil and Gas Operations" are listed below in chronological order by year and are in Adobe Acrobat format. Click here to download the Adobe Acrobat reader.

Calendar Year 2000 (104 pages)

Calendar Year 1999 (120 pages)

Calendar Year 1998 (119 pages)

Calendar Year 1997 (131 pages)

Calendar Year 1995-1996

OCS Incidents by Category: 1995 – 2004^YTD

	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004^YTD
Loss of Well Control (Total) *	1	4	5	7	5	9	10	6	4	2
Uncontrolled Flows	1	4	2	5	3	9	9	4	3	2
Diverter Events	0	0	3	2	2	0	1	2	1	0
Collisions	6	5	10	5	10	9	18	12	14	10
Explosions	0	6	10	3	5	2	6	3	4	2
Fires (Total) * *	42	87	125	90	75	103	85	93	104	45
Catastrophic	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Major	0	3	1	2	3	1	3	3	3	0
Minor	3	11	10	7	4	5	1	2	6	1
Incidental	39	73	113	81	68	97	80	88	95	44
Injuries	31	59	58	69	47	64	57	53	41	39
Fatalities	8	10	11	14	5	5	7	6	10	2
Significant Pollution * * *	4	4	3	9	4	¹7	7	11	10	5
Crude/Condensate	3	1	1	3	2	3	1	1	0	0
Refined Petroleum e.g., Diesel	1	2	0	1	1	0	0	2	2	0
Chemical e.g., ZnBr, Glycol	0	1	2	5	1	0	2	2	1	1
Synthetic-Based Fluids	0	0	0	0	0	5	4	6	7	4
YTD = Year to date. * Loss of well control means either of the following: (1) Uncontrolled flow of formation or other well fluids. Flow may be between two or more exposed formations or it may be at or above the mudline. Includes uncontrolled flow resulting from failures of either surface or subsurface equipment or procedures. (2) Flow of formation or other well fluids through a diverter. * * Fires are classified on the basis of the dollar amount of property damage according to the following criteria: Catastrophic = destruction of a facility worth greater than $10 million; Major = property damage greater than $1 million; Minor = property damage greater than $25,000 but less than or equal $1 million; Incidental = property damage equal to or less than $25,000; *** * * A list of all significant spills (greater than or equal 50 bbls) that occurred in the years 1964 through 2003 is available. ¹ At least (1) one Significant Pollution event involves spillage of more than (1) one product. SOURCE: TIMS database as of 1 October 2004**

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Last Updated: 10/21/04, 09:11 AM