More than 50 miles from the shoreline is only half of it. It's also more than 50 miles from any offshore platform. In the GOM, that covers almost the entire offshore area, out to well beyond 100 NM. That said, I know of no operator or oil company that allows any offshore flights without wearing lifejackets and having rafts onboard, and requiring passenger briefings. This is usually included in the operations manual, which is regulatory, and/or in the ops specs. CFR 14 is written to cover broad areas, and is as unrestrictive as possible, in accordance with the historic US philosophy. Just because it allows something, that doesn't necessarily mean that all operations are that permissive. Many restrictions are covered under ops specs, not just the general regulations.