EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications

for Environmental Regulation
Derek Saward
Head, Environmental Management Team
DECC Energy Development Unit

February 2014

EU Conclusions After Macondo

Industry highly capable but:
Strong safety culture insufficiently embedded throughout the
industry
Lack of transparency and sharing of information
Some EU regulators (North Sea) best-in-class but:
Fragmentation of regulatory systems
Cooperation is inconsistent
Safety and related environment issues are not coordinated
Need consistent best practice for safety and environment via formal
risk assessment and goal setting system involving:
Industry
Regulators
Coordination and cooperation amongst regulators, and with nonEU countries
Source: EU Directorate General for Energy
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Directive Objectives

EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Implementation Measures

EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Member State Requirements

Competent Authority (CA) to be formed, integrating relevant safety and
environmental issues
CA to be provided with adequate expert resources
CA to assess and accept relevant submissions from licensees,
operators and owners
CA to be provided with powers of enforcement to oversee compliance
and prevent and investigate major accidents and major environmental
incidents
CAs must cooperate in relation to notifying activities, major accidents
and major environmental incidents and emergency response
CAs must cooperate through EUOAG to raise standards and encourage
best practice
CAs must report major accidents and incidents and overall annual
performance to the Commission

EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

The UK Implementation Plan

DECC and HSE, with support from Defra, the Devolved Authorities, DfT, MCA
etc., are working together to deliver the UK implementation plan

Regular meetings with HSE to consider how to meet the Competent Authority
requirements

Regular meetings with HSE, Defra, DfT and MCA to identify lead authorities
for specific articles and to discuss legislative changes

DECC LED Licensing will be responsible for the licensing and operatorship
changes, and DECC OGED will be responsible for the environmental changes

Gap analysis to assess impact on the DECC licensing and environmental

regimes completed, and proposals to fill the gaps are currently being drafted

HSE will be responsible for implementing the safety requirements

Defra and the Devolved Authorities will be responsible for amending

legislation to implement the changes to the Environmental Liability Directive

DfT and MCA will be responsible for implementing requirements relating to

the External Emergency Response Plan

EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Main DECC Changes Licensing

Directive requires functional separation of DECC LED Licensing and the
Competent Authority and therefore separation from DECC OGED
DECC LED, including Licensing, is likely to be transferred to a new armslength body / agency to implement the recommendations of Wood Review
DECC LED Licensing will have to amend licensing and operatorship
processes to meet Directive requirements
Licence and operatorship applications will have to include safety information,
in addition to current requirements relating to technical, financial, and
environmental capacity and environmental liability
The Competent Authority will be a formal consultee in the licence and
operatorship application processes
Operators must be competent to undertake the proposed operations or the
Competent Authority will be able to request that they are replaced
DECC LED Licensing amendments could involve changes to legislation,
model clauses or regulatory guidance

EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Main DECC Changes Design Environment

and Major Hazards Reports will include environmental components,
similar to some of the information included in EIAs
Safety and Environmental Management Systems and Safety and
Environmentally Critical Elements will be subject to environmental review
Independently verified well notifications and weekly well operations reports
will be subject to environmental review
Oil Pollution Emergency Plan requirements extended and merged with other
aspects of emergency response (Internal Emergency Response Plan)
Environmental obligations on licensees, operators and owners, and all could
be liable for environmental damage
Improving environmental standards and formulating best practice to be
included in work of EU regulators group (EUOAG)
Transparency and sharing of information via EU-wide reporting system
covering environmental incidents and near-misses
Environmental issues to be included in formal Competent Authority /
Industry / Trade Union tripartite consultation
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Regulatory Changes Current

Most of the
changes will affect the HSE legislative regime, and offshore safety
Thoughts
legislation will be replaced or updated to incorporate Directive requirements
Defra and the Devolved Authorities will be amending the Environmental Damage
Regulations to incorporate the changes detailed in Article 38
DfT and the MCA have still to confirm whether any legislative changes are
necessary, but it seems likely that most of the Directive requirements relating to
the External Emergency Response Plan will be implemented via guidance
DECC LED Licensing have still to confirm required changes, but it seems likely
that the Directive requirements relating to licensing and operatorship will be
implemented via both legislation and guidance
Consideration also being given to amending safety zone legislation / processes,
to simplify the system and align it with Directive requirements
Current DECC environmental regulations, apart from the emergency response
regulations, e.g. EIA, Habitats, Offshore Chemicals, Oil Discharge etc., have
been reviewed and no changes are anticipated
New and amended charging schemes proposed for the current environmental
regulations, to implement a more equitable system of cost recovery
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Environmental Regulatory Changes

DECC legal advisers have confirmed that we must follow copy out, and
proposals to merge and replace the current oil pollution emergency
response regulations would be gold plating
Our understanding of existing restrictions on gold plating is that
transferring non-regulatory requirements into legislation could only be
justified if the requirements exactly match the Directive requirements, and
we could not create any additional regulatory requirements
Our understanding is that transferring existing regulatory requirement into
new regulations would also be gold plating
The Emergency Pollution Control (EPC) Regulations and the Oil Pollution
Response Convention (OPRC) Regulations will therefore remain in force,
but the OPRC Regulations will be amended to implement the Directive
requirements
Regulations will be drafted to amend the OPRC Regulations and to
implement other Directive requirements.
It may be possible to implement some of the Directive requirements by
administrative means, e.g. by updating existing regulatory and nonregulatory guidance
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Environmental Regulatory Changes

Changes to Design and Major Hazards Reports to include environmental
components will be covered by HSE regulations
Requirements relating to Safety and Environmental Management Systems will be
addressed separately, but will be combined for the purpose of meeting the
requirements of the Directive:
The new DECC regulations will specify the requirement to maintain an
Environmental Management System (EMS) that is accepted by DECC
DECC guidance will confirm that an integrated Safety and Environmental
Management System (SEMS) would be acceptable and specify EMS content
The existing EMS requirements relating to OSPAR Recommendation
2003/5 will be retained in the DECC guidance and extended to owners of
non-production installations
HSE regulations will cover the SEMS submission requirements relating to
the Directive
Directive requirements relating to Safety and Environmentally Critical Elements
(SECE) will be covered by HSE regulations
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Environmental Regulatory Changes

DECC requirements relating to broader Environmentally Critical Elements
(ECE) issues, i.e. non-SECE, will be specified in DECC guidance (broadly
based on the Energy Institute guidance)
Directive requirements relating to well notifications and weekly well
operations reports will be covered by HSE regulations
DECC is considering whether the LED WONS process could be combined
with the well notification process (but still separately reviewed by LED) to
reduce the administrative burden
Directive requirements relating to independent verification, e.g. for well
notifications and SECE, will be covered by HSE regulations
Directive requirements in relation to the movement of installations to and
from the UKCS will be covered by HSE regulations
Oil Pollution Emergency Plan will form part of the Internal Emergency
Response Plan (IERP), in combination with the PFEER emergency plan
New regulations will amend the OPRC Regulations to detail the additional
requirements to be included in the OPEP, e.g. oil spill response gap analysis
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Environmental Regulatory Changes

New regulations will amend the OPRC Regulations to extend the OPEP
requirements to decommissioning operations
DECC is considering whether the OPEP requirements should separately be
extended to include Carbon Capture and Storage operations (this wouldnt
be included in the new regulations as it would be gold plating)
New regulations will amend the OPRC Regulations to extend the OPEP
requirements to the owners of non-production installations
For drilling operations involving a MoDU, the owner of the MoDU would
prepare an OPEP for the non-production installation (essentially the same as
the current SOPEP), and the operator would prepare an addendum to that
plan to cover the drilling operation
New regulations will amend the OPRC Regulations to require an approved
OPEP to be in place prior to commencing the proposed activities
New regulations will introduce a charging scheme for the OPRC Regulations
(this may follow later if it could delay new regulations)
The existing OPEP guidance will be updated to reflect the changes relating
to transposition of the Directive
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Environmental Regulatory Changes

There will be a new requirement to describe the IERP (based on summaries
of the OPEP and the PFEER) in the Major Hazards Report
New regulations may require the use of suitable technical measures in order
to promote the reliability of the collection and recording of relevant data and
to prevent its manipulation
New regulations will fill any gaps in the environmental notification and
reporting requirements (no gaps are currently anticipated, but we have still
to receive EUOAG conclusions relating to data collection and sharing)
If necessary, new regulations will specify information sharing requirements
for DECC / HSE
A Competent Authority Portal is considered to be the best way to manage
the submission, sharing, review and acceptance / approval of the Directive
submissions and any related submissions (e.g. the OPEP)
Amendments to the Environmental Damage Regulations will extend the
Environmental Liability Directive provisions to all activities, not just oil and
gas, anywhere on the UKCS, and licensees, operators and owners could all
be liable for environmental damage
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Timetable
Directive came into force on 18 July 2013
Interim website launched 6 January 2014
http://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/directive.htm
Workshops and Industry Focus Groups in March and April 2014
Formal consultation on implementation proposals scheduled for June
September 2014
New guidance to be published in Q1/Q2 2015
New legislation must come into force to meet implementation deadline of
19 July 2015
New production installations and all non-production installations and well
operations must comply by 19 July 2016
Transitional arrangements for existing production installations will
commence in 2015 and all must comply by 19 July 2018
Commission to assess effectiveness of transposition and review efficacy
of Member States legislation
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EU Offshore Safety Directive

Implementation and Implications for Environmental Regulation

Thank you
Any enquiries
emt@decc.gsi.gov.uk

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