International liaison
HSE works with a number of international bodies to enable regulators to exchange information about:
- offshore health and safety trends
- industry health and safety performance
- lessons from incident
- industry best practice
- regulatory practice
- measuring the effectiveness of regulatory activities
We provide a network of offshore petroleum health and safety experts for mutual support and advice when required.
Current international liaison
Current international liaison includes:
- International Regulators Forum: IRF comprises ten national regulators from countries that produce offshore oil and gas - USA, Canada, Brazil, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and the UK. IRF shares knowledge and information of safety issues and global company performance. The group meets annually and corresponds throughout the year sharing issues of concern and raising awareness of best practice. IRF also hold biannual conferences for industry and offshore regulators, the latest being in Perth, Australia during October 2013. Further details of the outcomes of that conference, and other IRF issues, are available from the IRF website[40].
- Bilaterals: We have regular bilateral meetings with regulators from major producing neighbours. We have effective links with the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority through the UK/Norwegian Special Working Group. The meetings allow us to exchange information and develop common positions on cross-border issues. We plan a new UK/Norway Treaty is planned to encourage closer links. We also hold annual meetings with the Danish Energy Authority and the Dutch State Supervision of Mines, to facilitate agreement on cross-border issues.
- North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum (NSOAF): NSOAF has representatives from Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK. It meets annually to exchange information and develop common positions and joint initiatives. NSOAF has worked to reduce the difficulties due to differences in regulatory regimes and requirements, for example to make it easier to move rigs between North Sea countries, and to harmonise safety training standards. NSOAF recently carried out a multi-national audit across the North Sea to look at how offshore operators and drilling contractors are incorporating human and organisational factors into their well control systems, and it is important for the North Sea industry to learn the lessons identified in the audit report[41]. An earlier NSOAF multi-national audit project looked at offshore supervision issues, and the earlier audit report[42] similarly provides an opportunity for the offshore industry to learn about supervision best practise.
- European Union: In recent years most health and safety legislation has been introduced to implement European directives, mainly to promote minimum standards for health and safety of workers, but also to maintain the single market or protect the environment. There is now a body of EU health and safety law, the basis of which is the Framework Directive, which established broad obligations for employers to avoid and reduce risks in the workplace. However, a new specific offshore Directive[43] will come into force in July 2015. UK is also a member of the European Union Offshore Authorities Group (EUOAG)[44].
- International Committee On Regulatory Authority Research And Development (ICRARD): ICRARD is dedicated to disseminating knowledge in the area of health, safety and environment in the petroleum sector. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, The Netherlands, UK, and the USA are members. The ICRARD website provides further details.