Accessing OGR driver options using OGR/GDAL in Python?

Question

Using OGR in Python, I am attempting to modify the driver settings for S57. I am able to read the meta data from the driver as follows:

import ogr

driver = ogr.GetDriverByName("S57")
driver.GetMetadata()

Which returns all the meta-data for the driver, I have removed some of it for the sake of the post length.

{'DCAP_CREATE': 'YES',
 'DCAP_OPEN': 'YES',
 'DCAP_VECTOR': 'YES',
 'DCAP_VIRTUALIO': 'YES',
 'DMD_CREATIONOPTIONLIST': "<CreationOptionList>   <Option name='S57_EXPP' "
                           "type='int' description='Exchange purpose' "
                           "default='1'/>   <Option name='S57_INTU' type='int' "
                           "description='Intended usage' default='4'/>   "
                           "<Option name='S57_EDTN' type='string' "
                           "description='Edition number' default='2'/>   "
                           "<Option name='S57_UPDN' type='string' "
                           "description='Update number' default='0'/>   "
                           "<Option name='S57_UADT' type='string' "
                           "description='Update application date' "
                           "default='20030801'/>   <Option name='S57_ISDT' "
                           "type='string' description='Issue date' "
                           "default='20030801'/>   <Option name='S57_STED' "
                           "type='string' description='Edition number of S-57' "
                           "default='03.1'/>   <Option name='S57_AGEN' "
                           "type='int' description='Producing agency' "
                           "default='540'/>   <Option name='S57_COMT' "
                           "type='string' description='Comment' default=''/>   "
.........
'DMD_EXTENSION': '000',
 'DMD_EXTENSIONS': '000',
 'DMD_HELPTOPIC': 'drv_s57.html',
 'DMD_LONGNAME': 'IHO S-57 (ENC)',
 'DMD_OPENOPTIONLIST': "<OpenOptionList>  <Option name='UPDATES' "
                       "type='string-select' description='Should update files "
                       "be incorporated into the base data on the fly' "
                       "default='APPLY'>    <Value>APPLY</Value>    "
                       '<Value>IGNORE</Value>  </Option>  <Option '
                       "name='SPLIT_MULTIPOINT' type='boolean' "
                       "description='Should multipoint soundings be split into "
                       "many single point sounding features' default='NO'/>  "
                       "<Option name='ADD_SOUNDG_DEPTH' type='boolean' "
                       "description='Should a DEPTH attribute be added on "
                       "SOUNDG features and assign the depth of the sounding' "
                       "default='NO'/>  <Option name='RETURN_PRIMITIVES' "
                       "type='boolean' description='Should all the low level "
                       'geometry primitives be returned as special '
                       "IsolatedNode, ConnectedNode, Edge and Face layers' "
                       "default='NO'/>  <Option name='PRESERVE_EMPTY_NUMBERS' "
                       "type='boolean' description='If enabled, numeric "
                       'attributes assigned an empty string as a value will be '
                       "preserved as a special numeric value' default='NO'/>  "
                       "<Option name='LNAM_REFS' type='boolean' "
.......

Using the following functions

driver.GetMetadataItem("DCAP_OPEN")
driver.SetMetadata({"DCAP_OPEN" : "NO"})

I am able to obtain the "higher"-level options and set them accordingly. However, I'm interested in modifying options within the DMD_CREATIONOPTIONLIST and DMD_OPENOPTIONLIST, such as setting the UPDATES option in the latter. How do I check the status of said option and setting it afterwards?

Edit: Specifically the options on page 301 "S57 Control Options" link

Answer 1

After investigating further what was suggested by @nmtoken, I finally managed to obtain some desirable results.

from osgeo import ogr
import os

os.environ["OGR_S57_OPTIONS"] = "SPLIT_MULTIPOINT=ON,ADD_SOUNDG_DEPTH=ON"

driver = ogr.GetDriverByName("S57")
data = driver.Open("mapname")

The above snippet is able to set the options available in https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/s57.html. However, I am unable to verify that the settings are correctly loaded, besides looking at concrete map-based examples.