SafeOCS is a confidential reporting program administered by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ (BTS) Precursor Safety Data Program that collects and analyzes data to advance safety in energy operations on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The objective of SafeOCS is to capture and share essential information across the oil and gas industry about accident precursors and potential hazards associated with offshore operations. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and operated independently by BTS, which is a principal federal statistical agency. The Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) protects the confidentiality of all data submitted directly to SafeOCS.

Program Areas

SafeOCS includes two mandatory reporting programs, related to failures within well control equipment (WCE) systems and safety and pollution prevention equipment (SPPE), as well as a voluntary reporting program for near-miss and other safety-related events, called the Industry Safety Data (ISD) program.

How It Works

SafeOCS builds on the activities from other industries, such as aviation, where stakeholders have shared information through similar industry-wide programs that have led to increased operational safety and protection of the environment.

Individual companies do not typically share safety data across the industry. Safety information collected by industry groups is often limited to the group's members and is limited in scope. SafeOCS complements other safety and equipment reliability efforts and add to the combined knowledge to make the OCS a safer place to work and operate.

Through the SafeOCS program, BTS gathers, aggregates, analyzes, and publishes safety and equipment reliability data from oil and gas OCS operations, for use by industry, government, and the public.