Maritime Security: Coast Guard Should Conduct Required Inspections of Offshore Energy Infrastructure
Highlights
Congressional interest in the security of offshore energy infrastructure has increased because of the lives lost and the substantial damages that resulted from the Deepwater Horizon incident in April 2010. The U.S. Coast Guard--a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)--is the lead federal agency for maritime security, including the security of offshore energy infrastructure. The Coast Guard oversees two main types of offshore energy infrastructure--facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and deepwater ports. GAO was asked to examine (1) Coast Guard actions to ensure the security of OCS facilities and what additional actions, if any, are needed; (2) Coast Guard actions to ensure the security of deepwater ports and what additional actions, if any, are needed; and (3) what limitations in oversight authority, if any, the Coast Guard faces in ensuring the security of offshore energy infrastructure. GAO reviewed Coast Guard documents, such as inspection records, and relevant laws and regulations and interviewed Coast Guard inspectors and officials, including those at Coast Guard headquarters and the two Coast Guard districts that oversee all OCS facilities and deepwater ports that are subject to security requirements.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| United States Coast Guard | To strengthen the Coast Guard's efforts to ensure the security of OCS facilities and deepwater ports, the Commandant of the Coast Guard should develop policies and procedures to monitor and track annual security inspections for OCS facilities to better ensure that such inspections are consistently conducted. |
In June 2015, the Coast Guard updated its Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) Facilities User Guide to reflect an added feature to MISLE that allows users to identify if a vessel or facility is an OCS facility regulated under the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA), 33 CFR 106. In May 2016, the Coast Guard provided GAO with MISLE output that reflected the dates of inspections for facilities marked as regulated under 33 CFR 106. Thus, the Coast Guard is in a better position to ensure that security inspections are occurring on an annual basis for these facilities.
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| United States Coast Guard | To strengthen the Coast Guard's efforts to ensure the security of OCS facilities and deepwater ports, the Commandant of the Coast Guard should make improvements to the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) database or MISLE guidance to better ensure that all OCS facilities, both fixed and floating, are accurately and consistently identified and that the results of security inspections are consistently recorded to allow for better data analyses and management of the security inspections process. |
In June 2015, the Coast Guard updated its Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement (MISLE) Facilities User Guide to reflect an added feature to MISLE that allows users to identify if a vessel or facility is an OCS facility regulated under the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA), 33 CFR 106. Additionally, in September 2016, the Coast Guard issued an updated MISLE Facility and Platform Inspection Guide that indicates how security inspections can be recorded separately from other types of inspections. These actions should help ensure that the results of security inspections are consistently recorded to allow for better data analyses and allow the Coast Guard to be in a better position to oversee the security inspection process across OCS facilities. In April 2018, the Coast Guard liaison sent an email to confirm that Homeport 2.0 was deployed as planned in October 2017 and is fully operational and requested closure of the recommendation as implemented. The actions taken by the Coast Guard--to include deployment of Homeport 2.0--sufficiently address the GAO findings and, accordingly, we will change the status of this to "Closed-Implemented" effective April 2018.
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| United States Coast Guard | To strengthen the Coast Guard's efforts to ensure the security of OCS facilities and deepwater ports, the Commandant of the Coast Guard should ensure that information on deepwater ports in MISLE can be used as a management tool for decision making. These actions should include (1) issuing guidance on how information on deepwater ports and their security inspections should be entered into MISLE; (2) defining deepwater ports in MISLE guidance; and (3) making any changes necessary in the database to ensure that deepwater ports regulated under 33 C.F.R. parts 148-150 can be identified within MISLE. |
The Coast Guard distributed updated MISLE user guides in December 2011 to clarify when the deepwater port facility type is to be used in MISLE. In December 2011, the Coast Guard also asked its field units to examine facilities in MISLE that were perceived to be erroneously labeled with the deepwater port facility type. As a result, the Coast Guard was able to delete some unnecessary entries and add notes for others that were not deepwater ports as defined by 33 CFR Subchapter NN (parts 148 - 150). According to the Coast Guard, as a result of these efforts, those facilities that are deepwater ports or associated with deepwater ports can now be easily identified. Subsequently, an update to MISLE allowed users to edit the facility type so that the previously erroneously labeled facilities could be changed from a Deepwater Port facility type to the appropriate facility type. In May 2016, the Coast Guard provided GAO with a listing of Deepwater Port facilities that demonstrated that this feature allowed the Coast Guard to reclassify previously erroneously labeled facilities.
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