Australia Readies Changes to Offshore Safety Regulations

Source: Australian Department of Industry

Australia’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources is seeking feedback on proposed changes to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Safety) Regulations 2009.

These regulations will sunset (cease to be law) on April 1, 2026, and the proposed changes follow the Department’s review of the safety regime for offshore oil and gas workers in Commonwealth waters.

Key changes include:

• changes to reflect amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act including improving psychosocial health and discrimination provisions and operator notification and reporting requirements to NOPSEMA.

• introducing a vessel activity notification scheme.

• introducing a Design Notification Scheme to support early engagement with NOPSEMA on design safety matters.

• clarifying the circumstances that need a safety case revision by relating this to the loss or removal of a technical or other control measure identified in the safety case as being critical to safety.

• clarifying that a safety case must be revised at the end of every five-year period starting from the day the safety case is first accepted, even if it has been revised during this time.

• strengthening the requirements for operator registration. This includes ensuring that potential operators are able to do the work of an offshore facility operator.  

• streamlining the transfer of operators where an operator is replaced.  

• inserting provisions allowing the use of civil penalties, infringement notices, injunctions, enforceable undertakings and other alternative enforcement mechanisms. This is under the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014, as part of carrying out a graduated enforcement regime for the offshore petroleum sector.

• enhancing the diving safety management system, diving project plan, start-up notices and reporting obligations for diving supervisors.

• replacing references to ‘OHS inspectors’ with references to ‘NOPSEMA inspectors’ to reflect Act amendments. These replace two categories of inspectors (petroleum project inspectors and OHS inspectors) with NOPSEMA inspectors.

Submissions are welcome until October 2, 2024.