New measures announced to reinforce offshore oil and gas regime

Measures to ensure safety and environmental protection remain at the heart of UK’s offshore oil and gas industry have been set out today by Energy Minister John Hayes.

John Hayes, Energy Minister, said:

“It is vital that our oil and gas activities meet the highest possible standards of safety and environmental protection.

“I am confident that the Government and industry responses to the independent panel’s recommendations, alongside other ongoing work, will ensure that the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry builds upon its existing high standards.”

An independent review panel, chaired by Professor Geoffrey Maitland, acknowledged the ‘strength’ and ‘rigour’ of the UK’s offshore oil and gas safety and environmental protection regime when it reported in December 2011.

But the review, set up by Government to learn from the Gulf of Mexico tragedy, also stressed the importance of continuous improvement in oil and gas operations. It made a number of recommendations to further strengthen the UK’s regime.

A full response to the Maitland report has today been published by the Government. The majority of the recommendations have been implemented in full, but where an alternative approach has been taken this is fully explained in the response.

Key responses to the recommendations include:

• Industry has developed and published guidance to ensure that critical safety equipment remains in good repair;
• The pan-industry forum set up to share best practice and develop guidance and standards for well management and design will remain in place permanently;
• Guidelines for improved management systems to give assurance that safety and environmental plans are implemented robustly;
• DECC has published guidance on how petroleum licensees on the UKCS can demonstrate that they have the financial capability to respond to an incident, before consent is given to drill exploration & appraisal wells;
• Increased requirement for operators to carry out offshore oil and gas emergency response exercises involving the Secretary of State’s Representative, from every 5 years to every 3 years.

A new senior oversight group, comprising the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Health and Safety Executive and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will supervise the successful implementation of the recommendations that are still being delivered as well as ensuring that the offshore regime remains fit-for-purpose in the longer term.

Professor Geoffrey Maitland, said:
 

“As Chair of the review I am very pleased to see the substantial progress made on so many of the recommendations and that others continue to be worked on with timeframes for delivery in place. This positive progress demonstrates industry and the regulators’ commitment to continuous improvement, that puts safety and environmental protection at the heart of the industry.”

Notes for editors:

1. The full report is on the DECC website
2. Geoffrey Maitland is Professor of Energy Engineering at Imperial College London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2006. He has extensive experience of working with industry, government bodies and academia on energy-related and oilfield issues.
3. Following the Macondo incident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the Government appointed Geoffrey Maitland, Professor of Energy Engineering at Imperial College London, to chair a review panel to consider the findings from official reports into the incident and their relevance to the oil and gas industry in the UK. Mick Temple (retired BAA Development Director and currently a Member of the Faculty of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge) and Professor John Shepherd (Research Fellow in Earth Systems at the University of Southampton) also sat on the panel.
4. In addition, the panel included Jim Campbell (the then Director of DECC’s Energy Development Unit (EDU)), Kevin Myers (Health & Safety Executive (HSE)) and Philip Naylor (Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA)).
5. The final report was published in December 2011, and made a number of recommendations that were grouped around eleven themes (e.g. Implementation Assurance, Workforce Engagement, Liability and Insurance Issues and Technology Development).
6. The majority of the recommendations fell to industry (under the auspices of Oil and Gas UK) for response. A small steering group, chaired by DECC and comprising of officials from DECC, HSE, MCA and Oil and Gas UK have worked on the responses to the recommendations.
7. For more about the UK’s offshore oil and gas regime visit our dedicated oil and gas web portal

Source: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn12_166/pn12_166.aspx

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