§138.40. General requirements. — Inbound Citations

(b) The COFR Operator may establish and maintain evidence of financial responsibility using the insurance guaranty method by submitting an Insurance Guaranty Form to the Director.

(1) Each form must be executed by no more than four COFR insurance guarantors accepted by the Director. A lead underwriter is considered one of the COFR insurance guarantors.

(2) The process for establishing and maintaining the acceptability of a COFR insurance guarantor is as follows:

(i) The COFR insurance guarantor must request an initial determination by the Director of the COFR insurance guarantor's acceptability to serve as a COFR insurance guarantor under this subpart, at least 90 days before the date a COFR is required, by submitting information describing the COFR insurance guarantor's structure, business practices, history, and financial strength, and such other information as may be requested by the Director.

(ii) Each COFR insurance guarantor must submit updates to the initial request submitted under paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section, annually, within 90 days after the close of the COFR insurance guarantor's fiscal year, describing any material changes to the COFR insurance guarantor's legal status, structure, business practices, history, and financial strength, since the previous year's submission, and providing such other information as may be requested by the Director.

(b) For the purposes of applying the evidence of financial responsibility required under OPA 90 and this subpart and the limits of liability set forth in subpart B of this part, and in addition to any OPA 90 offshore facility evidence of financial responsibility requirements that may apply under 30 CFR part 553, a mobile offshore drilling unit is treated as—

(1) A tank vessel when it is being used as an offshore facility; and

(a) All forms referred to in this subpart are available at the NPFC COFR program website, https://npfc.uscg.mil/cofr/default.aspx, and may be completed online or downloaded.

(a) The COFR Operator of each vessel must submit, or cause to be submitted, to the Director, the evidence of financial responsibility required by § 138.40(a) using one of the methods specified in this section.

(1) If submitted on behalf of the COFR Operator, the guarantor must provide evidence of financial responsibility to the Director.

(i) The guarantor must specify the reason for terminating the guaranty in the notice required by this paragraph, if known.

(ii) Termination of the guaranty as to any covered vessel will not affect the liability of the guarantor in connection with an incident or release commencing or occurring prior to the effective date of the guaranty termination.

(4) If, at any time, the information contained in the evidence of financial responsibility submitted under this section changes, or there is a material change in a guarantor or self-insurer's financial position, the guarantor or COFR Operator or self-insurer (as applicable), must report the change to the Director, as provided in § 138.150.