Introducing a Petroleum Safety Framework in Ireland: Challenges and Issues
About the event
The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) is the independent body responsible for the economic regulation of Ireland's electricity and gas sectors, the safety regulation of petroleum undertakings, natural gas undertakings, natural gas installers and electrical contractors.
The CER's responsibilities in the safety regulation of upstream petroleum (oil and gas) exploration and extraction activities of petroleum undertakings originate from the Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety Act 2010 published in April 2010. That Act requires the CER to establish and implement a risk based Petroleum Safety Framework which includes a safety case regime. The Petroleum Safety Framework can best be understood as a collection of regulations, written regulatory documents and procedures which, taken together, describe the system the CER will use to regulate safety for petroleum activities and infrastructure in Ireland. In line with best international practice, the Act requires that the Framework is based on:
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a permitting regime for designated petroleum activities, whereby such activities cannot commence without the approval of an associated safety case by the CER and
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a risk based approach where petroleum undertakings are required to reduce all safety risks to a level that is As Low As is Reasonably Practicable (ALARP).
The Government decision to give the CER responsibility for the safety regulation of petroleum undertakings gave effect to a key recommendation by Advantica following its safety review of the Corrib gas pipeline. The Advantica Report recommended that a new risk based safety framework for major hazard pipelines, in line with best international practice, should be developed and implemented in Ireland.
Since 2010 the CER have been working on designing and implementing the Petroleum Safety Framework through a fully consultative process. Recently in June 2012, the CER published its Decision Paper on the High Level Design of the Petroleum Safety Framework, and is currently in the throes of developing the detailed design elements of the Framework with the goal of the Petroleum Safety Framework being in place by the end of 2013.
This presentation will discuss the key components of this regulatory Framework (including the ALARP concept), as well as exploring some of the key challenges and issues faced when introducing this new framework in Ireland.
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