The nation turns to the National Academies-National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council-for independent, objective advice on issues that affect people's lives worldwide. Book jacket.

The government needs to determine an acceptable level of risk for offshore operations that is consistent with national policy. For the purpose of its work, the panel assumed that the acceptable level of risk for offshore operations is zero accidents, zero deaths, and zero oil spills--though this goal may not be attainable. The panel realizes that neither the law nor any government regulation can prevent all possible accidents or malfunctions in complex systems such as offshore oil and gas production facilities. While it is an incontrovertible fact that offshore oil and gas production equipment has earned a remarkable record for safety in the past 25 years, human performance has often been attributed as a cause of failures and mishaps. The BAST requirement is limited to technologies on the OCS and is not designed to mitigate human errors. This leads to the second issue, which is the problem of calculating incremental benefits and costs related to obtaining a desired level of risk. These problems are discussed in detail in the report.

Commercially significant amounts of crude oil and natural gas lie under the continental shelf of the United States. Advances in locating deposits, and improvements in drilling and recovery technology, have made it technically and economically feasible to extract these resources under harsh conditions. But extracting these offshore petroleum resources involves the possibility, however remote, of oil spills, with resulting damage to the ocean and the coastline ecosystems and risks to life and limb of those performing the extraction. The environmental consequences of an oil spill can be more severe underwater than on land because sea currents can quickly disperse the oil over a large area and, thus, cleanup can be problematic. Bolted connections are an integral feature of deep-water well operations. High-Performance Bolting Technology for Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Operations summarizes strategies for improving the reliability of fasteners used in offshore oil exploration equipment, as well as best practices from other industrial sectors. It focuses on critical boltingâ€"bolts, studs, nuts, and fasteners used on critical connections.

While the public is generally aware of the use of hydraulic fracturing for unconventional resource development onshore, it is less familiar with the well completion and stimulation technologies used in offshore operations, including hydraulic fracturing, gravel packs, "fracpacks," and acid stimulation. Just as onshore technologies have improved, these well completion and stimulation technologies for offshore hydrocarbon resource development have progressed over many decades. To increase public understanding of these technologies, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine established a planning committee to organize and convene a workshop on Offshore Well Completion and Stimulation: Using Hydraulic Fracturing and Other Technologies on October 2-3, 2017, in Washington, DC. This workshop examined the unique features about operating in the U.S. offshore environment, including well completion and stimulation technologies, environmental considerations and concerns, and health and safety management. Participants from across government, industry, academia, and nonprofit sectors shared their perspectives on operational and regulatory approaches to mitigating risks to the environment and to humans in the development of offshore resources. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.