Offshore Safety Directorate

As a result of the accident and the Cullen report, responsibility for offshore safety regulation was moved from the Department of Energy to the UK Health and Safety Executive, which set up an Offshore Safety Directorate [2]. 

The Indian Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) had existed since 1986, although its function was non-regulatory. The Indian Government s response to the accident included giving OISD the mandate for the regulation of offshore safety. 

A. Stacy, Technical Policy for KP4 Ageing and Life Extension Inspection Program, 2010-2013, Health and Safety Execntive Hazardons Installations Directorate Offshore Division, November 2010. 

HSE (2007) Key Programme 3 Asset Integrity Programme A Report of the Offshore Division of the HSE s Hazardous Installations Directorate. Health and Safety Executive London. 

The pilot project report, which was published in April 2001, included (1) a survey of various indicators of the development of the risk level, (2) interviews with some of the key actors in the industry, and (3) proposals for further work (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate 2001). These proposals included a questionnaire to be distributed to all employees working on offshore installations. By including interviews and questionnaires, the RNNP project legitimised the opinions of offshore workers and union representatives as valid and necessary input to an assessment of safety in the petroleum sector. 

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). 

The RNNP project was initiated under the direction of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (PD) in 2000. Since 2004 the project has continued under the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), the aim being to measure and improve health, safety and environmental conditions in the petroleum activities offshore and at the petroleum facilities on land. 

Hazardous Installations Directorate, Offshore Injury and Incident Statistics 2000/2001 (Provisional Data), Health and Safety Executive, Hazardous Installations Directorate, Offshore Division, Table 6. 

The Safety Committee will also advise the Director and the Secretary on a variety of issues related to offshore energy safety, including drilling and workplace safety, well intervention and containment, and oil spiU response. The committee will facilitate... 

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