Offshore regulation could expand to contractors | Business | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

WASHINGTON
— The Obama administration is exploring whether to expand federal
oversight of offshore drilling beyond oil and gas companies to rig
suppliers, oil field services providers and other contractors now
outside regulators' reach.

Michael Bromwich,
the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and
Enforcement, told reporters Tuesday that the existing system imposes
artificial limits on what his agency can do to make offshore drilling
safer. Its enforcement power now ends with oil and gas companies that
hold leases to drill in U.S. waters.