Offshore Safety Act

Notification of New Substances Regulations 1993 822,869 Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 37 Offshore (Electricity and Noise) Regulations 1997 746 Offshore Safety Act 1992 56... 

Specific risk factors relevant also in the petroleum industry are covered by separate pieces of legislation, such as the 1929 Electrical Supervision AcE and the 2002 Fire and Explosion Protection AcV° Also, because health issues may well have an impact on safety level, the specific health legislation is relevant to offshore safety. A total of six health-related acts thus form part of the basis for the detailed safety regulations (see further in Subsection 5.4.1). ... 

As if problems such as these were not enough to call into question the wisdom of the detailed prescriptive approach which had been requested by the Sea Gem Inquiry and enthusiastically endorsed by Parliament, there is in fact one more issue that appears to hammer a final nail into the coffin. Recognising that health and safety at work was a general problem in all industries, a government-sponsored inquiry had been established under the chairmanship of Lord Robens to consider the matter in its entirety. Reporting in 1972, after the passing of the Mineral Workings (Offshore Installations) Act but before it had entered into force, the... 

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... 

Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act, SH W (Offshore Irrstallations) Act, Mines and Quarries Act... 

Naturally, the most general statute applicable to offshore petroleum activities is the Petroleum Act ig()6. This act contains several sections on various safety aspects of the activities, covering the whole range from safety for personnel to availability of installations (see further on this in Subsection 5.4.2 (a)). 

In practice, however, the regulatory regime is simpler than this. First, at the level of formal acts, there are few substantive provisions on safety to be found anyway. Second, most of the acts leave it to the king (i.e., the government by means of royal decree) to provide the details of how and under which circumstances the act shall be applied to offshore activities. Consequently, we can turn to the decrees (and... 

The common scope of application for all the regulations is generally defined by reference to Sect. 1-4 of the Petroleum Act, with some adjustments following from the parallel provisions contained in the other acts upon which the decree is based (see Subsection 5.3.1). This implies that the basic criterion is whether the matter in question is petroleum activit , defined in the Petroleum Act as all activities associated with subsea petroleum deposits , and further defined by examples of such activities (Sect. 1-6 (c) and (e)-(i)). We need not go further into this for our purpose it suffices to note that the decree covers all aspects of activities that reasonably can be considered to have such a link to offshore petroleum activities that they may be relevant for safety in that activity, ° including activities related to certain facilities onshore. 

In Australia, there is a specific requirement (see Of hore Petroleum Greenhouse Gas Storage Act section 695) for a review of the effectiveness of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority every three years. In practice, this judgement is made subjectively based on a comparison of NOPSA s practices with those of other regulators internationally and the views of key stakeholders, including industry. 

National Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and supporting regulations. A combination of legislation applicable to all industries with additional specific major hazard regulations for the offshore oil and gas industry. Nonmajor hazard legislation is applied offshore on an activity basis. 

Under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, USAGE has authority for permitting the construction of any obstructions, such as artificial islands, installations, or structures, in U.S. navigable waters and on the seabed of the OCS but does not have authority for the operations of these obstructions. In addition, USAGE does not have authority over offshore wind farm worker safety. ... 

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