Offshore Installations Regulations

The As-Low-As-Reasonably-Practicable (ALARP) principle is interesting because it directly recognises that safety (in the sense of Safety-I) is a relative rather than an absolute term. This has been expressed very clearly by the UK Offshore Installations Regulations in the following clarification ... 

L 30 A guide to Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992... 

L 70 A guide to the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations... 

A guide to the Installation, Verification and Miscellaneous Aspects of Amendments by the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc) Regulations 1996 to the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992... 

The primary safety feature for any installation should be its evacuation mechanisms for its personnel. If personnel cannot escape from an incident they may be affected from it. Personnel must first be aware that an incident has occurred, and then have an available means to escape or evacuate from it. An adequate means of escape should be provided from all buildings, process areas, elevated structures, and offshore installations. Provision of an adequate means of escape is listed in most national safety regulations for the industry as a whole as well as local building code ordinances. 

Department of Energy (U.K.), SI 1977 No. 486. Offshore Installations. The Offshore Installations Life Saving Appliances Regulations. 1978, HMSO, London, U.K., 1978. 

Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/3117). For more discussion on the UK regulations, see Chapter 6 in this volume and Paterson, J. (2011) Health and safety at work offshore , in G. Gordon, ]. Paterson and E. Ujenmez (eds.) Oil and Gas Law-Current Practice and Emerging Trends. Second Edition. Dundee University Dundee pp. 1-13 (hereinafter, Paterson, Health and Safety at Work Offshore [2011]). 

Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/3117) Schedule 2, para. 3 amending the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives and Safety Committees) Regulations 1989 (SI 1989/971). 

HSE (2006b) A Guide to the Offshore Installation (Safety Case) Regulations 200. HSE Books London. 

Offshore-specific legislation applies to Offshore Installations as defined in the regulations. These include fixed and floating production installations, plus non-production installations such as MODUs, FSUs, Hotels and others, according to their exposure to major hazard risks. In total, there are approximately 290 surface installations and another approximately 25 mobile drilling rigs in the UK sector on an annual basis. 

Even with the reduction of inspection activities, for which MMS was criticised after the Deepwater Horizon accident, it still conducted a far larger number of inspections than the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) or, after 2004, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) had ever conducted. Independently of the efficiency of MMS inspections, the U.S. regulators have been much more visible on offshore installations than regulators in Norway. The Norwegian oil and gas sector has never had the kind of detailed governmental hands on offshore activities such as the United States had after the establishment of the MMS, not even in the years before the introduction of the internal control system in the 1980s (see Chapter 10 in this volume). 

In accordance with this approach in the regulations, neither NPD nor later PSA kept statistics on the number and the scope of visits to offshore installations. However, it is easy to count the number of recant inspections on the basis of easily available information from the PSA s Web site. Because of both historical and technological differences, counting the number of inspection in the Norwegian offshore sector and the Gulf of Mexico does not tell much in itself. 

The risk acceptance criteria used by the UK petroleum industry have mainly been formulated by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and are embodied in statutory legislation. The Offshore Installations Safety Case Regulations 2005 (SCR05), see HSE... 

Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security Act 1997 Minerals Workings (Offshore Installations) Act 1971 Noise at Work Regulations Offshore Safety Aet 1992 Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 Petroleum Aet 1987... 

HSE (United Kingdom Health Safety Executive), 1997. Offshore Installations (Prevention of Fire and Explosion, and Emergency Response) Regulations, 1995 (PFEER), Approved Code of Practice and Guidance, L65. HSE Books. 

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