Health & Safety Report 2014

HEALTH & SAFETY REPORT 2014

4. Safety: Significant Issues and Activities This section summarises some of the more significant health and safety issues and activities affecting the industry and, in turn, Oil & Gas UK during 2013. It does not set out to represent the entire scope of issues and activities, only those of higher significance or of wider interest to member companies and other stakeholders. 4.1 European Union Offshore Safety Directive The European Commission (EC) published a draft Regulation on offshore oil and gas safety in October 2011 following its review in response to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil & Gas UK supports the general objective of seeking to raise safety standards across European offshore oil and gas operations, but believes a Regulation would have dismantled the post-Piper legal framework in the UK and would have been hugely administratively burdensome to apply without significant safety improvement. As a result, Oil & Gas UK was part of an active campaign to change the legislative instrument from a Regulation to a Directive and, on 28 June 2013, the EC published Directive 2013/30/EU on the safety of offshore oil and gas operations. The objective is to set minimum requirements to reduce as far as possible the occurrence of major accidents related to offshore oil and gas operations and to limit their consequences. The Directive has to be implemented by Member States by 19 July 2015. The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and the HSE are working collaboratively to transpose the Directive into UK law. Oil & Gas UK’s directorates in health, safety and employment issues; environment; and operations have been working closely with the regulators to provide the industry perspective on the proposed regulatory changes. Furthermore, European Union (EU) Directive work groups enable Oil & Gas UK members to communicate with the HSE and DECC throughout the transposition process and to review and comment on any proposals relating to the Directive and its implementation. To date, the work groups have been involved in matters such as gap analysis and proposals for sharing information and transparency between competent authorities in relation to a range of specified events. Indications are that the majority of the Directive will be transposed into new Offshore Installation (Safety Case) Regulations, although some existing HSE and DECC legislation will also need to be amended to fully implement the Directive. This is the most significant legislative change to affect our industry for some time and members have supported Oil & Gas UK’s efforts to ensure that the transposition results in relevant and proportionate change, and that the current, well established, safety and environmental regime on the UKCS is not diminished. The HSE’s website 6 provides up-to-date information on the new or revised Regulations and the implementation of the Directive. 4.2 Health and Safety Executive Energy Division On 1 April 2013, the HSE’s Offshore Division was restructured to become part of a new Energy Division comprising Offshore, Pipelines (on and offshore) and Mines Inspectorates. This new Energy Division more closely aligns the HSE with changes in the external energy environment, as it assumes responsibility for a number of emerging technology areas, such as offshore renewables, shale gas, coal bed methane and carbon sequestration.

6 Information can be found on the HSE’s website at www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/directive.htm

page 22