Results From a Four Year Regulatory Campaign To Reduce Offshore Hydrocarbon Releases

Abstract

Proposal In April 2000, The Offshore Safety Division of the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive launched a 4 year campaign to try to reduce the number of hydrocarbon releases occurring on offshore installations in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). The target was to reduce the annual number of major and significant releases by 50% by the end of March 2004. The campaign resulted from concerns that no improvement had been seen in the hydrocarbon release record over the previous several years. The paper willOutline the main elements of the campaignReport on ‘bottom line’ progress in reducing release numbersIndicate the main problem areas (in terms of both equipment and systems procedures) that have been identified as involved in the releases, report on the remedial measures formulated to counter these problems areas and indicate the effectiveness of the measuresReport on the excellent co-operation achieved between regulators and industry in pursuance of the campaign and indicate some of the forms that the co-operation has takenConclude that carefully formulated joint action plans between regulators and industry can lead to significant reductions in annual hydrocarbon release numbers Background The campaign started in April 2000 and was targeted at trying to secure a 50% reduction in the annual number of offshore major and significant hydrocarbon releases (see Table 1 for definition of release categories) by the end of Year 2003/2004 compared to a baseline of Year 1999/2000 when there were 139 such releases, 12 major and 127 significants. So a reduction to 70 releases or lower was needed, if the target was to be met.