2023-12513: Marine Casualty Reporting on the Outer Continental Shelf

Summary

The Coast Guard proposes changing the reporting criteria for certain casualties that occur on foreign floating outer continental shelf (OCS) facilities (FOFs), mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs), and vessels engaged in OCS activities. In this supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM), the Coast Guard revises the approach described in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published in 2014 and responds to public comments about the NPRM. The Coast Guard proposes this action to harmonize the casualty-reporting regimes that apply to foreign and U.S. FOFs, MODUs, and vessels engaged in OCS activities and to account for the changes in technology on the OCS, since the casualty-reporting regulations were originally published in 1982. In addition, in response to public comment on the 2014 NPRM, the Coast Guard proposes to raise the property damage dollar threshold that triggers a casualty report from $25,000 to $75,000 for fixed facilities on the OCS because the original regulation setting the property damage threshold amount was issued in the 1980s and has not since been updated. Through this SNRPM, the Coast Guard would update Coast Guard regulations to keep up with technology, improve awareness of accident trends on the OCS, improve safety on the OCS, and reduce the regulatory burden on operators of fixed OCS platforms.

The agency’s own summary, as published.

What this changes

Amends 4 parts of the Code of Federal Regulations — the standing rules this notice rewrites.

• 33 CFR 140 General
• 33 CFR 146 Operations
• 46 CFR 4 Marine Casualties and Investigations
• 46 CFR 109 Operations