When the Petroleum Safety Authority, Norway (PSA) was established on 1 January 2004, it was heir to more than three decades of experience from the Norwegian oil and gas business. Its goal is to become a regulatory agency which sets the agenda for health, safety and the environment (HSE) in this sector.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) was the first of several regulators in Norway to be affected by a restructuring of such agencies. Originally established in 1972 to supervise the country’s fledgling offshore industry, it was split in the New Year into a ‘residual’ NPD in charge of resource management, and the PSA. The latter is responsible for safety, emergency preparedness and the working environment in the oil and gas sector. Its new structure was formally implemented on 1 July. Magne Ognedal, Director- general of the PSA, observed that:
“This organisation and our just over 160 staff have tackled the change in a convincing manner. They deserve top marks for the way they have discharged both external and in-house duties in parallel with the change process.”
Phases
The PSA can look back on several phases in the Norwegian approach to oil-related HSE during its 30 years as part of the NPD. Mr Ognedal noted that “regulatory attention has shifted in line with technological and social developments as well as with the expertise and experience ... gained”. During the first decade of Norwegian offshore operations, the focus was heavily on the technical standard of equipment and on methods.
“Technology and working practices had undergone little development after petroleum activities really took off around the world in the early 20th century ... This found clear expression on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) through frightening accident statistics during the early period ... But a lot was gained with the development of a set of regulations and supervisory methods which stimulated technological improvements on a large scale during the 1970s.”
With time, however, the improvements that could be achieved through a one-side concentration on technical standards proved to have their limits. Mr Ognedal observed that:
“Our experience showed that accidents and undesirable incidents were attributable not only to technological factors but also to the human ability to control the technology available”.
Management
The authorities accordingly devoted growing attention during the 1980s to the management and control of oil industry operations, reflecting a global trend in quality thinking by the industry. This involved a shift in emphasis from traditional quality control of the end product, to quality assurance – that is, ensuring good processes that produce the desired final quality. Such concepts as ‘quality management’ and later ‘total quality management’ began to be introduced. This development was reflected in the regulations and the way they were practised through clear specifications and requirements relating to line-manager responsibility for safety management. In other words, the trend was away from the traditional approach whereby a specific organisational unit was ‘responsible’ for seeing that official HSE rules were observed. Companies are now expected to set goals for HSE, with managements responsible for running the business in such away that these targets are met. Mr Ognedal commented that:
“this approach to the regulatory role yielded good results in the shape of further improvements to the accident statistics ... Towards the end of the 1990s, however, the authorities picked up signals that the level of risk had ceased to decline and was possibly moving in the wrong direction ... A search for reasons seemed to indicate that this was a consequence of the major organisational changes in the petroleum sector from the mid-1990s – mergers, outsourcing and the like”.
The Norwegian authorities do not regard change by itself as a risk-enhancing factor, he notes, and points out that every improvement is also the outcome of changes.
“However, supervision of the way companies manage such processes has exposed deficiencies in their ability to register the impact on HSE, and thereby to integrate these considerations in their decision-making.
“Regulation in recent years has accordingly focused to a great extent precisely on management of change processes. This also includes such issues as corporate culture.”
As things stand, an approach based on the concept of an HSE culture is likely to be given priority in the PSA’s future work.
On Land
The agency also became responsible for regulating Norway’s land-based oil and gas plants from the new year, presenting it with another new challenge. Mr Ognedal explained that:
“The distinction between land-based and offshore operations has gradually diminished, not least because of remote control technology. Activities on land have great significance for work on the NCS, and vice versa. So HSE efforts have been reinforced by putting one regulator in charge.”
Category:
Environment
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