The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has announced that offshore oil and gas lessees and owners of operating rights are now required to submit summaries of their actual expenditures for the decommissioning of wells, platforms and other facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) as part of the final Decommissioning Costs Rule.

This information will help BSEE to better estimate future decommissioning costs related to OCS leases, rights-of-way, and rights of use and easement. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management may use BSEE's future decommissioning costs estimates to set necessary financial assurance levels to minimize or eliminate the possibility that the government will incur decommissioning liability.

The Final Decommissioning Costs Rule will be published in the Federal Register Reading Room today and can be viewed by clicking here.