Expert group review of petroleum HES regulations (Engen report)

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs appointed 31. October 2012 an expert group to review the regulatory regime in the petroleum industry with respect to health, environment and safety. The report was subbmitted on 28th August 2013.

The objective is to increase the knowledge about how the supervisory authorities’ monitoring of the petroleum activities is adapted to current and future challenges.

The three main recommendations are:

  1. The Norwegian system is robust and should be continued.
  2. The approach should be risk based, a more distinct priorization of measures is required.
  3. Authorities should put emphasis more on the industry’s implementation of risk assessment, risk acceptance criteria and risk management.

Recommendation 2 states specifically that authorities should conduct cost benefit assessments when making regulation changes and in case of decisions regarding specific activities and/or projects. This is one of the items that the Ministry already has started to work with actively.

The full report (in Norwegian) is available here.

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