Belgium: The European Commission (EC) for the very first time has outlined comprehensive EU legislation on oil platforms aimed at "ensuring the highest safety standards in the world". The legislation, however, has attracted mixed responses.
The EC is contemplating new EU standards, including criteria for granting drilling permits, controls of the rigs and safety control mechanisms.
Recent communication from the EC drew a quick rebuke from Oil & Gas UK, which represents UK offshore operators. Malcolm Webb, OGUK chief executive, called the move towards drilling suspensions "wholly unjustified and inappropriate for the UK offshore oil and gas industry".
Norrie McVicar, Chair of the International Transport Federation's Offshore Task Force Group, said: "This is the wrong position to take and the wrong time to take it. The EC should be protecting the safety gains made in the UK offshore sector, not eroding them by dumbing them down to a lowest common denominator."
The commission said it was aiming to close "loopholes" in the current regulations, which make companies liable for clean-up costs of an accident up to 12 miles offshore. The new regime would extend that to 200 miles.
"Safety is non-negotiable. We have to make sure that a disaster similar to the one in the Gulf of Mexico will never happen in European waters," said Günther Oettinger, Commissioner for Energy at the EC.
"This is why we propose that best practices already existing in Europe will become the standard throughout the European Union," he said.
The commission's move would grant the EC intrusive rights over national authorities in licensing practices and scrutiny of member states' monitoring of the companies.
While national authorities would still supervise oil platforms, their work would be "evaluated by independent experts", the equipment on mobile rigs would be subject to new EU safety standards, and companies would need to "have a contingency plan and prove that they have the financial means available to them to pay for environmental damage caused in the event of an accident."
"An overhaul and a more coherent legal framework is needed," said the commission. "The European commission for the very first time envisages comprehensive EU legislation on oil platforms covering the prevention, the response, and financial liability."
The EC recommends specific EU legislation on oil platforms, indicating that a formal proposal could be tabled early next year.
"Such an EU-wide approach is deemed necessary, as the environmental, economic and social damages caused by a possible offshore accident do not know borders," said the EC in a statement.
Following the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, the EC has screened existing rules on oil platforms. Although safety standards in the EU industry are generally high, the rules often vary from a company to company and legislation differs from one member state to another.
Certain safety aspects are also governed by existing EU legislation, such as the EU environmental Liability Directive and the Waste Framework Directive.
According to commission figures, there are fewer than 900 offshore rigs operating in the EU, with the United Kingdom operating over half of them with 486. Its nearest competitor, the Netherlands, has 181.