Sec. 4. Ocean Energy Safety Institute
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The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act ( 43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq. ) is further amended by adding at the end the following: The Secretary shall establish an independent Ocean Energy Safety Institute (in this section referred to as the Institute ) to enhance safe and responsible operations across the offshore oil and gas industry. The Secretary may establish the Institute as— a federally funded research and development center through an agreement in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 35.017–1; or a university-affiliated research center managed by an institution of higher education.
The Secretary shall ensure that the Institute is a collaborative initiative involving government, academia, and scientific experts. The Institute shall— develop a program of research, technical assistance, and education that serves as a center of expertise in oil and gas exploration, development, and production technology; provide a forum for dialogue, shared learning, and cooperative research among academia, government, industry, and other nongovernmental organizations, in offshore energy-related technologies and activities that ensure safe and environmentally responsible offshore oil and gas exploration, development, and production operations; serve as a technical center that captures and preserves knowledge and experience to improve such operations; provide recommendations and technical assistance to the Secretary related to the determination of best available and safest technology and environmentally sound offshore oil and gas development practices; evaluate design, test protocols, and test results on behalf of the Secretary to certify new best available and safest technologies for such operations that have health, safety, or environment ramifications; facilitate training of Federal workers on identification and verification of best available and safest technology, and implementation of operational improvements, in the areas of offshore drilling safety and environmental protection, blowout containment, and oil spill response; develop and maintain a domestic and international equipment failure reporting system and database of critical offshore oil and gas operations equipment failures related to well control; provide recommendations and technical assistance related to geological and geophysical sciences relevant to understanding the technical challenges of offshore oil and gas operations; and provide knowledgeable independent assessments concerning technology maturity, suitability, and cost.
The Secretary shall issue regulations to establish an annual nonproducing lease fee with respect to areas of the outer Continental Shelf that are subject to a lease under this Act for production of oil or natural gas under which production is not occurring. Such fee shall apply with respect to land that is subject to such a lease that is in effect on the date final regulations are promulgated under this subsection or that is issued thereafter. The amount of the fee shall be $1 for each acre of such land from which oil or natural gas is produced for less than 90 days in a calendar year.
The Secretary shall assess and collect the fee established under this subsection. Amounts received by the United States as the fee under this subsection may be used by the Secretary for operations of the Institute. The Secretary may include in the regulations provisions to prevent evasion of the fee. The Institute shall provide a report to the Secretary on all Institute activities on a quarterly basis, and conduct an in-person meeting with the Secretary or the Secretary’s designees at least once each year. .
The Secretary of the Interior shall issue regulations establishing the fee under the amendment made by subsection
(a)within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act.
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Sec. 4
Ocean Energy Safety Institute
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