Health and safety in the offshore oil and gas industry

Since the 'Piper Alpha ' disaster in 1988 the system of regulating occuparional health and safety in the offshore oil and gas industry has been the subject of radical reorganization. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was given sole responsibility for the regulation of health and safety offshore; existing legislation was or is being reviewed and revised and new legislation has been implemented. The most significant of the new regulations,The offshore installations (Safety Case) regulations 1992, requires all operators to conform to a safety management system and safety case acceptable to the HSE. These safety cases are 'living documents ' which should reflect the changing conditions on each installation and which must be resubmitted to the HSE every three years. This reorganization led to an increased demand for relevant information to enable the industry to keep abreast of changes in the legislation, implement new requirements and also be aware of technological advances which have implications for future health and safety. During this period there has been substantial growth in the amount of health and safety information being pubiished, but there is little published guidance on how to access material directly relevant to the industry. During vacation employment in the Saf'ety and Environment Department of a North Sea oil producer during 1993 the difficulties that can arise in identifying a particular regulation or i