Safety & Environmental Management Program (SEMP)

What is SEMP?

The SEMP combines a variety offshore operating programs into a single, integrated, flexible, always-improving management scheme. The SEMP is a voluntary complement to compliance with the Bureau operating regulations. An OCS operator's SEMP specifies how to:

	Operate and maintain facility equipment;
	Identify and mitigate safety and environmental hazards;
	Change operating equipment, processes, and personnel;
	Respond to and investigate accidents, upsets, and "near misses;"
	Purchase equipment and supplies;
	Work with contractors;
	Train personnel; and
	Review the SEMP to ensure it works and make it better.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has created Recommended Practices for Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Plan for OCS Operations and Facilities (RP75). The RP75 is industry's response to the BOEMRE call for SEMP. It is a detailed guide for building a SEMP. Cooperation among the API, the Offshore Operator's Committee, BOEMRE, and others resulted in RP75. From the Bureau perspective, doing RP75 is doing SEMP.