HOUSTON – The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) hosted representatives from Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Norway at the International Regulators’ Forum (IRF) 2016 Midyear Meeting in Houston. The meeting is a continuation of the group’s long-standing commitment of collaborating and sharing information to improve safety.
The IRF is an international forum of offshore petroleum health and safety regulators whose members are dedicated to the common cause of raising offshore health and safety standards. Member countries include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The group met last in October 2015 for an Offshore Safety Conference and the 2015 Annual General Meeting (AGM). The conference focused on applying best practices for risk reduction from various sectors to the offshore oil and gas sector to move towards a holistic approach. At the 2015 AGM held in Washington, the members focused on issues of common concern: encouraging strong safety cultures and ensuring that safety remain a top priority during the low-price environment.
To advance the group’s safety goals, the members formed three working groups: Asset Integrity, led by New Zealand, Performance Measures, led by the U.S., and Culture (of safety), led by Canada. The working groups provided status reports on their projects and outlined the work they plan to do going ahead. The groups will present their findings at the IRF’s 2016 Annual General Meeting, which will take place in New Zealand in October.
The group also held a roundtable discussion on the impact of a low oil prices on safety performance of operations. The members affirmed their commitment to maintain safety in a low-price environment and discussed ways to further collaborate on safety matters.
