In this week’s readers’ Q&A session, Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, answers your questions.

In the first of two posts, he discusses how his organisation balances safety concerns with political ones, what technological improvements have been made since the BP oil spill and whether new regulations on blowout preventers (BOPs) will delay the issue of new permits.

In the second post, published above, he talks about the reliability of BOPs in general, the future of drilling in Alaska, and whether commercial concerns dictate his decision making.

Next week, Steve Cunningham, chief executive of Landis+Gyr, the world’s biggest smart meter maker, will be in the hotseat. Email your questions to energysource@ft.com by the end of Sunday, April 17th.

But for now, over to Michael:

The chief regulator of US offshore oil drilling has dismissed warnings from the industry about the risk to oil output from delays in issuing new permits.

Reacting to warnings that a two-year delay could put at risk up to 680,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2019, Michael Bromwich, director of the US ocean energy regulator, pointed out that no output had so far been lost. He also insisted he would not be swayed either by companies or politicians when making permitting decisions.