Offshore Safety in Oil and Gas Sector: Political Agreement between the EU Parliament and the Council

The European Parliament and the Council reached on 21 February 2013 a political agreement on the legislative proposal on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities (COM(2011) 688 final). 

For a description of the initial proposal, see previous post here.

For a short overview of the agreement text, see press release from the European Commission (IP/13/149).

Shortly put, the main elements of the agreement are as follows:

A directive it will be. The Commission initially proposed a regulation (directly binding), but the final text takes the form of a directive which allows more flexibility in transposition for the Member States in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. It will allows keeping some national approaches to offshore safety already in place.

Licensing - Only operators with proven technical and financial capacities will obtain a license. Public participation must be ensures before the start of the exploratory drilling.

Independent national competent authorities in charge of the supervision of safety at the installations will verify the provisions for safety, environmental protection and emergency preparedness for rigs, platforms and related operations. 

Independent verifiers will control the technical solutions presented by the operator.

Transparency and provisions of information to citizens as concerns the performance standards of the industry.

Special reports must be submitted by the operator to the national authorities: description of the drilling installation, potential major hazards and special HSE-measures. Obligatory ex ante emergency planning and Emergency response plans must be in place based on rig or platform risk assessments. The plans will be regularly tested.

Full liability for oil and gas companies in case of environmental damages. Operators are required to prove that they have "sufficient physical, human and financial resources to minimise and rectify the impact of major accident." as well as "adequate provision ... to cover liabilities" related to its offshore operations.

An EU Offshore Authorities Group has already been established in order to share best practices between inspection authorities, which will also work together to the development / improvement of safety standards.

International cooperation  is ensured by the Commission and operators working in the EU will have to demonstrate that they apply the same policies in their usual place of operation and when they are operating in the EU.

The text is now endorsed on 27 February 2013 by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) (read press release here). It will then be formally approved by the European Parliament during its plenary session in May and by the Council  just after. After entry into force, Member States will have 2 years for transposing the directive.

See also press release from the European Parliament here and from the Irish Presidency here.

Picture (C) Council,