Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995

Meaning of “offshore installation”

3.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (4), in these Regulations the expression “offshore installation” means a structure which is, or is to be, or has been, used while standing or stationed in relevant waters, or on the foreshore or other land intermittently covered with water—

(a) for the exploitation, or exploration with a view to exploitation, of mineral resources by means of a well;

(b) for the storage of gas in or under the shore or bed of relevant waters or in the recovery of gas so stored;

(c) for the conveyance of things by means of a pipe; or

(d) mainly for the provision of accommodation for persons who work on or from a structure falling within any of the provisions of this paragraph,

and which is not an excepted structure.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1), the excepted structures are—

(a) a structure which is connected with dry land by a permanent structure providing access at all times and for all purposes;

(b) a well;

(c) a structure or device which does not project above the sea at any state of the tide;

(d) a structure which has ceased to be used for any of the purposes specified in paragraph (1), and has since been used for a purpose not so specified;

(e) a mobile structure which has been taken out of use and is not for the time being intended to be used for any of the purposes specified in paragraph (1); and

(f) any part of a pipeline.

(3) For the purposes of these Regulations the following shall be deemed to be part of an offshore installation—

(a) any well for the time being connected to it by pipe or cable;

(b) such part of any pipeline connected to it as is within 500 metres of any part of its main structure;

(c) any apparatus or works which are situated—

(i) on or affixed to its main structure; or

(ii) wholly or partly within 500 metres of any part of its main structure and associated with a pipe or system of pipes connected to any part of that installation.

(4) Where two or more structures are, or are to be, connected permanently above the sea at high tide they shall for the purposes of these Regulations be deemed to comprise a single offshore installation.