Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement BSEE

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and releasing millions of barrels of oil over nearly three months, the worst offshore spill in U.S. history. Investigators found that the Minerals Management Service had been both promoting leasing and policing safety, with too little independence or expertise for the second job. Interior created the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on October 1, 2011, to separate enforcement from leasing.

BSEE reviews drilling permits, inspects offshore platforms and rigs, investigates accidents, and enforces rules on well design, blowout preventers, and spill response planning. It can issue fines and shut down operations that violate regulations. It also oversees the decommissioning of aging platforms and wells, a growing liability as fields in the Gulf of Mexico, renamed the Gulf of America by executive order in 2025, reach the end of their lives.

Its Well Control Rule of 2016, written in response to Deepwater Horizon, was revised in 2019 to ease some requirements and adjusted again in later years, reflecting a recurring debate. Industry groups argue that duplicative rules raise costs without improving safety, while environmental and safety advocates argue that weakening them invites another disaster. Proposals to recombine BSEE with the leasing bureau have also surfaced periodically.