An Offshore Regulator's Perspective: Maintaining Focus on Managing Spill Risk

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ABSTRACT Lest we forget – three years after Macondo the focus on preparing for major oil spills and ensuring offshore petroleum companies have arrangements in place that match the specific risks of the activity is as critical as ever. The Australian regulator is resolved to continually challenge risk assessments and require companies to go beyond design events in order to meet their commitments for a world-class preparedness and response capability. Established to independently administer an objective-based regulatory regime for the offshore petroleum industry in Australian Commonwealth waters, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Management Authority seeks to hold industry to account for its level of preparedness for a major incident. Challenged by remote and vulnerable areas, the Australian oil and gas industry has responded admirably, if not collectively. The competitive nature of the industry, the necessary focus on prevention, emerging technologies and more difficult targets have influenced the level of enthusiasm for continually improving oil spill preparedness arrangements. As the regulator of offshore environmental management our focus is to ensure that as time progresses, and prevention measures prove themselves reliable, that these factors do not impede further progress in preparing for mitigating and remediating major oil spills. There are paradoxical challenges for industry preparedness. No single company can or should hold the full range of resources for a preventable incident. Yet society expects exactly this standard from those developing Australia's riches. The radical centre of this paradox is where insightful and lasting solutions can and must be found - weak compromises such as showing preparedness for your last event will often fail when put to the test. Companies and Governments alike must maintain situational awareness of their spill risks and evaluate the circumstances they find themselves in and implement measures to manage this risk. A regulator's role is only effective if they are challenging companies and asking questions: Have you done enough to understand and manage the risks? Are you implementing what is required? The regulator in Australia has implemented a way of regulating that, in part, aims to keep industry's focus on their next event and not their last. Its mechanism for doing so is to establish an improvement culture of open and transparent risk assessments that are subject to challenge against legislated risk acceptance criteria. This paper outlines the current challenges of an independent regulator and identifies the next steps in challenging industry to do more.