The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine will convene an ad-hoc committee to provide an assessment of the risk profile of offshore oil and gas operations over time. Specifically, this committee will examine issues related to and assess progress toward decreasing the systemic risks of offshore energy operations, keeping people and the environment safe as the Gulf of Mexico offshore energy industry evolves. In particular, the panel will:

• Define the current profile of systemic risks of offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico that could lead to disasters. By systemic risks, we mean defining risks associated with the components of the system, the system itself, and how humans interact with the system, in which a failure of any part could lead to failure of the system as a whole. The panel may consider the risks of a system failure as well as the impact of those risks to humans and natural resources.
  
• Assess how various technological, regulatory, environmental, organizational, and process changes have contributed to increasing or decreasing the systemic risks of the offshore oil and gas operations since the release of the report Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Improving Offshore Drilling Safety (2012) and other relevant reports. Identify the numerous recommendations made from these post-Deepwater Horizon reports and detail the ones implemented and major ones that were not.
  
• Identify critical gaps and prioritize future needs for increased understanding, communication, and management of systemic risks related to the offshore oil and gas industry. This task could build on previous efforts by the industry and regulators.
  
• Consider how the regulatory structure motivates or incentivizes technological, environmental, organizational, and process changes that could decrease the systemic risks of the offshore oil and gas operations.
  
• If appropriate, assess how activities (including workshops and grants) funded by the GRP and other funders have contributed to a better understanding and reduction of the systemic risks in offshore oil and gas operations.

The offshore energy industry is a high-hazard industry characterized by diverse and complex operations. The panel will rely on available incident, enforcement, and management system data, and regulator and industry input, supplemented by the panel's expertise.