"Regulatory Update:  What's on the Radar and the Potential Impact to Offshore Operators"

Jodie Connor, J. Connor Consulting, Inc.

Jodie will provide insight into the current regulatory landscape on the OCS.   Oil and gas companies, including lessees and operators of OCS leases on the shelf and in deep-water Gulf of Mexico, continue to face an overwhelming increase in federal offshore rulemaking, policy and enforcement actions from various jurisdictional agencies.  Areas of regulatory focus to be presented include Financial Assurance, Incidents of Non-compliance and Civil Penalty Assessments, Best Available and Safest Technology and Safety and Environmental Management Systems. 

Jodie Connor has over 30 years' experience in the oil and gas industry with a concentration in environmental and regulatory compliance. Her company provides all regulatory permitting and compliance functions for OCS operators. Prior to forming J. Connor Consulting, Inc. in 1981, Jodie was employed by several independent oil and gas operators. Jodie served as an Industry Representative on the Minerals Management Service (MMS) Oil Spill Response Plan Task Force Development and has received the MMS Corporate Leadership Award. 

"Overview and Potential Impacts of BSEE Proposed Well Control Rule"

Lance Labiche, J. Connor Consulting, Inc.

Lance will not only provide an overview of BSEE's Proposed Well Control Rule, he will also review the potential impacts and unintended consequences in relation to Drilling margin, casing and cementing, containment, BOP equipment, Inspection/Mechanical Integrity and Real Time Monitoring.

Lance is a registered professional engineer with 13 years of experience in the exploration and production side of the oil and gas industry. His areas of expertise are drilling, completions, workovers and abandonments. 

Lance worked for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (formerly MMS) for 12 years. He started working for MMS in 2002 as a Field Engineer in the New Orleans District Office where he worked for 4 years in drilling and workovers. Lance then spent 2 years working as a Civil Penalty Reviewing Officer in the Office of Safety Management. From there he served as the Senior Drilling Engineer in the Technical Assessment and Operations Support Section. In 2011, Lance became Chief of the District Operations Support Section where he was responsible for the review and approval of all Well Containment Screening Tools, all BOP control system drawings, managing the Idle Iron Program as well as implementing all policies regarding drilling, completions, workovers, and abandonments. 

Lance has a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering as well as a Bachelor of Science in Geology from Louisiana State University. 

"New Standards Effects on Cement Design and Testing"

James Reid, Oxy

Mr. Reid will discuss the regulatory climate today in the US surrounding placement and evaluation of oil well cements and strive to answer how the new regulations affect cementing operations. Have new standards such as API Standard 65-2 affected cement design and testing in federal wells such as OCS and BLM as well as state wells cemented on land? How have new regulations affected cement design and cement sheath evaluation for slurries placed across the production or injection zone or other identified potential flow zones? What about potential loss of reserves due to post cementing inter-zonal flow? What about evaluation and confirmation of the cement job across potential flow zones? Is a "properly designed" cement job adequate for long term security of the HC zones after abandonment? 

Jamie Reid attended Louisiana State University and was awarded a BS in Petroleum Engineering. He worked for HLB and BJS prior to joining Oxy Petroleum, where he is a Senior Drilling Engineering Advisor working with all global Oxy business units primarily on cementing design, cementing operations, and remedial cementing planning and operations. These involve production reservoir conformance issues such as injection profile modification and use of cements and non-cementing materials for mechanical casing integrity. Mr. Reid is a member of API Subcommittee 10 and has worked on a number of subcommittees within SC10.  Currently he chairs a workgroup in SC10 on well abandonment. He is also a member of SPE and has been involved in ACTE cementing paper selection committees in the past, as well as SPE forums. 

"Impacts and status of the ongoing BSEE Well Control rulemaking"

Paul Sonnemann, SafeKick

As a final consequence of the 2010 Macondo/Deepwater Horizon tragedy, the drilling industry has long expected the BSEE has to update their rules relating to Well Control.  With the publication of a comprehensive proposed set of new well control rules on 4/17/ 2015, the BSEE initiated the formal rulemaking process, which was initially expected to be completed in early 2016. Industry response to the proposed regulations has been strong, however, and as of the beginning of 2016, there is no indication as to exactly what the new rules will include, nor when they will become finalized.

This presentation will highlight and illustrate the potential impact of several significant - and controversial - initially proposed rule changes that may or may not be included. It will also provide an update on what is known about the current state of this rulemaking process as of February 26th.

Paul Sonnemann is SafeKick's VP of Technology. Paul has spent his entire 35 year career focusing on well control while working in drilling operations, training, and technical support positions for several major drilling contractors and operators, He is currently VP of Technology at SafeKick, where he is actively promoting the long overduedevelopment and use of improved well control technologies. 

Since the late 80's, Paul has played an active role in many IADC, SPE, and DEA well control initiatives and is currently chairing the IADC Gas-In-Riser Workgroup as well as serving as liaison between the IADC Well Control and UBO/MPD Committees. He has edited or authored various well control books and manuals and has made numerous presentations at IADC and SPE events worldwide. Continuously seeking better ways to do things, Paul remains passionate about moving the industry forward toward use of more reliable, safer, and ultimately less expensive well control practices.