The Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc.) Regulations 1996

PART I INTERPRETATION AND GENERAL

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc.) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 30th June 1996.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“the 1992 Regulations” means the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992(1);

“the 1995 Order” means the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Application outside Great Britain) Order 1995(2);

“the 1995 Regulations” means the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations 1995(3);

“concession owner” in relation to a well, means the person who at any time has the right to exploit or explore mineral resources in any area or to store gas in any area and to recover gas so stored if, at that time, the well is, or is to be, used in the exercise of that right;

“duty holder” in relation to an installation, means the person who is the duty holder as defined by regulation 2(1) of the 1995 Regulations in relation to that installation;

“environmental conditions” means—

(a)

meteorological and oceanological conditions; and

(b)

properties and configuration of the sea-bed and subsoil;

“the Executive” means the Health and Safety Executive;

“fixed installation” means an installation other than a mobile installation;

“installation” means an offshore installation within the meaning of regulation 3, except sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), and paragraph (ii) of sub-paragraph (c) of paragraph (3), of the 1995 Regulations;

“integrity” means structural soundness and strength, stability and, in the case of a floating installation, buoyancy in so far as they are relevant to the health and safety of persons;

“management system” means the organisation and arrangements established by a person for managing his undertaking;

“mobile installation” means an installation (other than a floating production platform) which can be moved from place to place without major dismantling or modification, whether or not it has its own motive power;

“safety case” means a document described in regulation 2(2) of the 1992 Regulations which is required to be prepared pursuant to a provision of those Regulations;

“traffic route” means a route for pedestrians, vehicles or both and includes any stairs, staircase, fixed ladder, doorway, gateway, loading bay or ramp;

“well” means—

(a)

a well made by drilling; and

(b)

a borehole drilled with a view to the extraction of minerals through it or another well,

and shall be deemed to include any device on it for containing the pressure in it;

“well intervention operation” means an operation in which a well is re-entered for a purpose other than to continue drilling or to maintain or repair it;

“well-operator”, in relation to a well, means the person appointed by the concession owner for a well to execute the function of organising and supervising all operations to be carried out by means of such well or, where no such person has been appointed, the concession owner;

“workover operation” means an operation in which a well is re-entered for the purpose of maintaining or repairing it; and

“workplace” means any workroom or other place on an installation used mainly for the performance of work, and does not include a traffic route.

(2) Any reference in these Regulations to operating an installation is a reference to using it for any of the purposes described in regulation 3(1) of the 1995 Regulations.

(3) Where a duty holder in relation to an installation, or a well-operator, is succeeded by a new duty holder or well-operator, anything done in compliance with these Regulations by the former duty holder or operator in relation to the installation or the well shall, for the purpose of these Regulations, be treated as having been done by his successor.

(4) Unless the context otherwise requires—

(a) any reference in these Regulations (apart from Schedule 2) to—

(i) a numbered regulation or Schedule is a reference to the regulation or Schedule in these Regulations so numbered; and

(ii) a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph so numbered in the regulation or Schedule in which the reference appears; and

(b) any reference in Schedule 2 to a numbered regulation or Schedule is a reference to the regulation or Schedule in the 1992 Regulations so numbered.

Application

3.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), these Regulations shall apply—

(a) in Great Britain; and

(b) to and in relation to installations, wells and activities outside Great Britain to which sections 1 to 59 and 80 to 82 of the 1974 Act apply by virtue of articles 4(1) and (2)(b) and 5 of the 1995 Order.

(2) These Regulations shall apply to a well in Great Britain, and activities in relation to it, only if—

(a) it is drilled from an installation; or

(b) it is drilled with a view to the extraction of petroleum.

(3) In paragraph (2) “petroleum” means any mineral oil or relative hydrocarbon and natural gas existing in its natural condition in strata, but does not include coal or bituminous shales or other stratified deposits from which oil can be extracted by destructive distillation.

(1)

S.I. 1992/2885, amended by S.I. 1995/738.

(2)

S.I. 1995/263.

(3)

S.I. 1995/738.