REGULATIONS RELATING TO
MATERIAL AND INFORMATION IN THE PETROLEUM ACTIVITIES
(THE
INFORMATION DUTY REGULATIONS)
Petroleum Safety
Authority Norway
Norwegian
Pollution Control Authority (SFT)
Norwegian Social
and Health Directorate (NSHD)
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
MATERIAL AND INFORMATION
Section 1 Preparation of material and information
Section 2 Directly available information
Section 3 Publicly available information
Section 4 Retention period and discarding
CHAPTER II REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATIONS IN CONNECTION
WITH CONSENT TO CERTAIN PETROLEUM ACTIVITIES
Section 5 Requirement on consent to certain petroleum
activities
Section 6 Contents of application for consent
CHAPTER III MATERIAL AND INFORMATION TO BE SUBMITTED
Section 7 Drilling
and well activities
Section 8 Well programme in the event of industrial
conflict
Section 9 Information on monitoring, discharge and risk
of pollution
Section 10 Material and information to be sent to other
institutions
CHAPTER IV ALERT, NOTIFICATION AND REPORTING
Section 13 Notification of an accident which has
resulted in death or personal injury
Section 14 Notification of possible work related disease
Section 15 Reporting of work hours
Section 16 Reporting of manned underwater operations
Section 17 Reporting of drilling and well activities
Section 18 Reporting of damage to loadbearing structures
and pipeline systems
Regulations relating
to material and information in the petroleum activities (The information duty
regulations).
Issued by the Norwegian Petroleum
Directorate 3 September 2001 pursuant to Act 29 November 1996 No. 72 relating
to petroleum activities Section 10-18, Act 4 February 1977 No. 4 relating to
worker protection and working environment etc., Section 2 subsection 3 first to
fourth paragrahps inclusive and Section 80 subsection
2, and Regulations 31 August 2001 relating to health, environment and safety in
the petroleum activities, Section 21, Section 23, Section
25 and Section 57 first paragraph litera b. Issued by the Norwegian Pollution Control
Authority 3 September 2001 pursuant to Act 13 March 1981 No. 6 relating to
protection against pollution and relating to waste Sections 9, 39 third
paragraph and 40, and Regulations 31 August 2001 relating to health, environment
and safety in the petroleum activities, Section
57 first paragraph litera b. Issued by the Norwegian
Board of Health 3 September 2001 pursuant to Act 2 July 1999 No. 64 relating to
health personnel Section 16 second paragraph
and Section 76 last paragraph, Act 5 August 1994 No. 55 relating to control of
communicable diseases Section 1-2 third paragraph and Section 8-4, and
Regulations 31 August 2001 relating to health, environment and safety in the
petroleum activities Section 57 first
paragraph litera b. Amended
16 December 2002. Amended 17 December 2003. Amended 21 December 2004. Amended 22 December 2005. Amended 19 June
2006. Amended 30 June 2006. Amended
12 February 2007. Amended 1 October 2009. Last
amended 29 April 2010.
CHAPTER 1
MATERIAL AND INFORMATION
Section 1
Preparation of material and information
Information as mentioned in the Framework Regulations Section 17 on general requirements to material and information, first paragraph, shall as a rule be made available to the supervisory authorities in the form of documents and in a document format which the supervisory authorities can use. A document shall be
a) a delimited and coherent amount of information,
b) produced for a specific purpose,
c) produced in a recognised storage medium,
d) suitable to subsequent reading, listening, presentation, transfer or other reproduction.
With regard to documents in their final version, a recognised document format shall be used which ensures that the presentation is not significantly altered by reading, storage or printout.
Documents that are made available to the supervisory authorities shall clearly show
a) the person issuing the document and the unit approving it in the organisation producing the document,
b) the time of approval,
c) whether it is a final or a provisional version.
Material and information shall be handled with a view to common solutions and subsequent use.
Section 2
Directly available information
Information to be submitted to the
supervisory authorities on request may alternatively be made directly available
in electronic format in consultation with these authorities. The extent of
directly available information shall be delimited in relation to the request.
Section 3
Publicly available information
Reported environmental data as mentioned
in the Facilities Regulations
Section 16 on
instrumentation for monitoring and recording, which are of significance to
safety when conducting petroleum activities, shall be publicly available.
The
party responsible for the measurements shall make important results from
full-scale measurements of loadbearing structures
publicly available, at the latest four years after the measurements have been
carried out.
Section 4
Retention period and discarding
Material and information according to Section 1 on preparation of material and information shall be
retained as long as is necessary in the interest of prudent petroleum
activities. In particular
a) everyone carrying
out underwater contractor activities shall retain the operation log from manned
underwater operations for a period of 40 years from the last entry,
b) the operator or the
contractor responsible for the operation of a facility shall retain
meteorological and oceanographic data until they have been handed over to the
Norwegian Meteorological Institute,
c) the operator shall
retain material and information on permanent plugging of wells,
d) the operator shall
retain material and information on facilities and waste temporarily left on the
sea bed,
e) the operator shall
retain material and information on acute pollution and actions against acute
pollution with associated subsequent examination,
f) the operator shall
retain material and information on environment monitoring,
g) the operator shall
retain material and information on discharge of oil and on consumption and
discharge of chemicals,
h) the party
responsible shall retain material and information on situations
of hazard and accident, as well as every serious case of near miss of
such situations of hazard and accident,
i) the operator and the employer shall retain mapping results
showing to what extent employees have been exposed to possible health hazardous
working environment factors. The period of retention shall be in proportion to
the assumed health hazardous long-term effects of the exposure.
At the time of expiration or
surrender of the production licence and specific licence to install and to
operate facilities according to the Petroleum
Act Section 4-3, the person with a duty to
carry out the decision relating to disposal according to the Petroleum
Act Section 5-3 shall be responsible for
the retention of material and information as mentioned in the first paragraph.
In the decommissioning plan the licensee
shall account for the material and the information that the operator is
required to retain subsequent to the decision relating to disposal having been
implemented.
When the petroleum activities are
terminated, the supervisory authorities may order that material and information
as mentioned in the first paragraph, are handed over
to them.
Material and information that are not to
be retained or handed over according to the first to the fourth paragraphs inclusive, may be discarded and scrapped.
CHAPTER II
REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATIONS IN CONNECTION WITH CONSENT TO CERTAIN PETROLEUM
ACTIVITIES
Section 5
Requirement on consent to certain petroleum activities
The
operator must obtain consent
a) prior to implementation
of exploration activities which entail drilling to a depth exceeding 200 meters
below the sea bed,
b) prior
to implementation of exploration drilling,
c) prior to implementation of
manned underwater operations,
d) prior to putting
into service a facility or parts thereof,
e) prior to carrying
out major rebuilding or change in the purpose for use unless these are covered
in the approved plan for development and operation (PDO),
f) prior to use of a facility exceeding the life
span and the assumptions on which approval of the plan for development and
operation of petroleum deposits and the plan to install and to operate
facilities for transport and utilisation of petroleum is based,
g) prior to disposal of
a facility, although a decision relating to disposal according to Section
5-3 of the Petroleum Act has been made,
h) prior to removal or change of use of a facility
that has a significant safety related function in the petroleum activities, and
that is not comprised by a decision relating to disposal according to Section
5-3 of the Petroleum Act,
i) prior
to removal or change of use of a vessel that has a significant safety related
function in the petroleum activities.
If the basis for consents
granted in accordance with the first paragraph of this section is significantly
changed, the supervisory authorities may require the operator to obtain a new
consent before the activities are continued.
Section 6
Contents of application for consent
Sufficient time in advance of
planned commencement the operator must submit an application to the Petroleum
Safety Authority. Application for consent according to Section 5 on requirement
on consent to certain petroleum activities litera f
must be submitted one year before the planned life span is exceeded. Application for consent according to Section 5 on requirement
on consent to certain petroleum activities shall contain:
a) information
on which activities are intended to be carried out,
b) a description of the
activities comprised by the application, and the progress plan for these
activities,
c) a programme for the first well if the
application comprises drilling and well activities in respect of one or more
wells, cf. also Section 7 on drilling and well
activities,
d) an overview of
steering documents in respect of the activities comprised by the application,
e) a description of the
management systems for the activities comprised by the application, cf. also
the Management Regulations Section 3 on management of health, environment and safety,
f) an overview of
exemptions granted according to the health, environment and safety legislation,
g) information stating whether agreements have
been concluded with contractors, and if so who is to be regarded as the
principal enterprise in connection with such agreements, cf. also the Framework Regulations Section 44 on
several employers at the same workplace, principal enterprise,
h) a description of the analyses and evaluations
made in relation to health, environment and safety aspects with regard to the
activities and facilities comprised by the application, and the results of and
the measures to be implemented in consequence of these evaluations,
i) a summary of the results from
the environmentally oriented risk and emergency preparedness analyses, together
with a description of how the planned emergency preparedness against acute
pollution has been provided for, cf. the Management Regulations Section 16 on environmentally oriented risk and emergency preparedness analyses,
and the Activities Regulations
Section 64 on establishing emergency
preparedness,
j) a description of the results of the internal
and external follow-up, cf. the Management Regulations Section 21 on follow-up and the Framework Regulations
Section 15 on verifications, and a
description of the planned follow-up of the activities comprised by the
application,
k) general drawings of
the facility,
l) a statement about
the application from the elected representatives of the employees, cf. also the
Framework Regulations Section 6 on arrangements for employee contribution.
m) an Acknowledgement of
Compliance, where applicable.
In the case of application for use
of pipeline systems in Section 5 first paragraph litera d, the application shall also contain the pipeline
system’s co-ordinates.
In the case of application for
rebuilding in Section 5 first paragraph litera e, the operator shall state how simultaneous
activities are planned to be conducted, cf. the Activities Regulations Section 26 on
simultaneous activities.
In those cases where the
activities for which application for consent has been submitted according to Section
5 on requirement on consent
to certain petroleum activities may result in pollution or danger of pollution,
application for permission according to the Activities Regulations Sections 55, 57, 59, 60, 63 and 64 shall be
included in the application for consent.
CHAPTER III
MATERIAL AND INFORMATION TO BE SUBMITTED
Section
7
Drilling and well activities
The
operator shall ensure that the drilling and well
activities programme as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Section 72 on well programme and Section 73 on well
location and well path is submitted according to time-limits stipulated by the
Petroleum Safety Authority.
Section
8
Well programme in the event of industrial conflict
If an industrial conflict is probable, the
operator shall submit to the Petroleum Safety Authority a résumé of the well
programme for ongoing activities no later than seven days after the time of the
notification of the collective dismissal. The operator shall submit to the
Petroleum Safety Authority a programme for plug back of the relevant wells, cf. also the Activities Regulations Section 79 on securing of wells. The Petroleum Safety Authority shall have
received the plug back programme within four days of the notification of the
collective resignation.
In the event of industrial
conflicts, the activity plans which have been discussed with the elected
representatives of the employees, shall be submitted to
the Petroleum Safety Authority.
Section
9
Information on monitoring, discharge and risk of pollution
The operator shall submit the following
material and information to the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority:
a) results
from monitoring of the external environment as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Chapter X-I on monitoring of the external environment. The results from monitoring
as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Section
51 on baseline
surveys, second paragraph, Section 52a on monitoring
of sea bed habitats first paragraph and Section 52b on
environmental monitoring of the water column first paragraph, cf. Section 52c on reporting of
monitoring results, shall be submitted according to Guidelines for environmental
monitoring of the petroleum activities on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Other results from monitoring shall be submitted as soon as they are available,
b) information on changes in the risk of pollution. The information shall include the reasons for the changes and state what corrective measures have been taken,
c) report
on annual discharges according to the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority’s
Guidelines on reporting from offshore petroleum activities. Reporting shall be
done by means of “Environment Web” (EW). The report and the supporting data
shall be submitted (loaded up into EW) before 1 March the following year,
d) results from the environmentally
oriented risk and emergency preparedness analyses as mentioned in the activities regulations section 64 on establishing emergency preparedness , together with a description,
based on the environmentally oriented risk and emergency preparedness analyses,
of how the planned preparedness against acute pollution has been provided for.
Section 10
Material and information to be sent to other institutions
The operator shall ensure, within the time
limits that may have been stipulated, that
a) results from pre surveys
(track surveys) as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Section 13 on pre-surveys are offered to the Norwegian Mapping Authority Sea (Statens kartverk Sjø),
b) samples from pre surveys as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Section 13 on pre-surveys , showing the nature of the sea bed, are
offered to the Geological Survey of Norway (Norges
geologiske undersøkelse)
when the laboratory work with these samples has been completed,
c) information on location of permanently placed
and mobile facilities as mentioned in the Framework Regulations Section 26 on
placing of facilities, choice of routes, as well as temporarily secured and
abandoned wells as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Section 79 on securing of wells, is given to the publication 'Notifications to
Seafarers' ('Etterretninger for Sjøfarende') and to the publications of the fishery,
and that a copy is sent to the Petroleum Safety Authority,
d) placing at sea and removal
of navigation marks is announced beforehand in
'Notifications to Seafarers' ('Etterretninger
for Sjøfarende')
e) establishment of safety zones and their
revocation as mentioned in the Framework Regulations
Chapter VII on safety zones is
announced in 'Notifications to Seafarers' ('Etterretninger
for Sjøfarende') and in the publications of the
fishery,
f) meteorological and oceanographic data with
reports on data quality as mentioned in the Facilities Regulations Section 16 on
instrumentation for monitoring and recording,
and annual reports on data acquisition are sent to the Norwegian Meteorological
Institute (DNMI), and that such reports on oceanographic data are sent
to the Institute of Marine Research (Havforskningsinstituttet),
g) seismological data as
mentioned in the Facilities Regulations
Section 16 on
instrumentation for monitoring and recording are sent to the Institute
of Solid Earth Physics (Institutt for den faste jords fysikk) or
NORSAR,
h) information
on marking of facilities as mentioned in the Facilities Regulations Section 72 on marking of facilities is sent to the Norwegian Coast Directorate,
i) plan for
implementation of action against acute pollution is sent to the Norwegian Coastal
Administration.
CHAPTER IV
ALERT, NOTIFICATION AND REPORTING
Section
11
Alert and notification to the supervisory authorities of situations of hazard and
accident
The operator shall ensure co-ordinated and
immediate telephonic alert to the Petroleum Safety Authority of situations of hazard and
accident which have led to or which, under insignificantly altered circumstances,
might have led to
a) severe and acute injury,
b) acute life-threatening illness,
c) severe
impairment or loss of safety functions or other barriers that endanger the
integrity of the facility,
d) acute
pollution.
The alert shall be confirmed
in writing.
In
the event of situations of hazard and accident as mentioned in the first
paragraph literas a to d inclusive,
but of less severe or less acute character, the operator shall give written notification
individually to the Petroleum Safety Authority on the first working day after the situation occurred or was
discovered.
The supervisory
authorities stipulates detailed requirements to the format of the written alert
as mentioned in the first paragraph, and to the notification as mentioned in
the second paragraph.
Section 12
Follow-up
Until situations as mentioned in Section
11 first and second paragraphs
on alert and notification to the supervisory authorities of situations of
hazard and accident have been normalised, the operator shall keep the
supervisory authorities continuously informed about the development and
measures that are planned to be implemented.
Before the
operator brings to
a close the normalisation following severe or acute situations of hazard and accident as mentioned in the Activities Regulations Section 68 on
handling of situations of hazard and accident litera e, notification shall be submitted to the
supervisory authorities.
In the
event of actions against acute pollution, the
operator shall ensure that the plan for conducting the action as mentioned in
the Activities Regulations
Section 70 on action
against acute pollution is sent to the Norwegian Coastal Administration.
Section 13
Notification of an accident which has resulted in death or personal injury
The employer or the one representing the employer at
the location shall submit written notification to the Petroleum Safety
Authority and to the joint local office of the Public employment and welfare
administration in Madla about accidents which have
led to
a) death,
b) severe personal injury,
c) work disability with absence,
d) medical treatment.
As regards persons exposed
to increased atmospheric ambient pressure, written notification shall also be
given with regard to personal injury which has required first aid.
The notification as mentioned in the first paragraph,
shall be given on the Public employment and welfare administration’s form NAV
13-06.5.
The principal enterprise and the operator shall receive a copy of
the notification sent to the authorities by the individual employer.
Section 14
Notification of possible work related disease
Any medical practitioner who
through work acquires knowledge that an employee may suffer from a work related
disease, shall notify the Petroleum Safety Authority in writing, cf. the Working
Environment Act Section 5-3. The notification shall be
given on the Petroleum Safety Authority and the Labour Inspectorate’s Form 154
b, at the latest one month after the disease was discovered. The medical
practitioner shall give notification of occupational
diseases on
the Public employment and welfare administration’s form
NAV 13-06.05.
Employees
who think they are suffering from a work related disease, shall notify the
employer or the one representing the employer. If the employee agrees, the
employer shall further notify the health personnel in his own enterprise. The
health personnel shall make a professional assessment and shall, if deemed
necessary, notify the Petroleum Safety Authority. The health personnel shall
always report any recurrence of the disease if the employee has been without
any problems from the disease for a period of at least
twelve months.
Notification of possible work
related disease as mentioned in the first and second paragraphs,
shall be given irrespective of whether the authorities have been informed of
the matter earlier, cf. Section 11
first paragraph on alert in severe and acute situations
of hazard and accident.
Section 15
Reporting of work hours
The operator shall ensure that the number of work
hours is reported to the Petroleum Safety Authority with regard to the work
carried out on a facility. The Petroleum Safety Authority shall be in receipt
of the report at the latest 14 days after the end of each quarter.
The hours
shall be reported on the form enclosed with the regulations or in the electronic format decided by the Petroleum Safety Authority.
Section 16
Reporting of manned underwater operations
The operator shall send to the Petroleum
Safety Authority activity reports on manned underwater operations carried out
from facilities or vessels. The Petroleum Safety Authority shall be in receipt of the
report at the latest 14 days after the end of each quarter.
The
operator shall furthermore send to the Petroleum Safety Authority an experience
report at the end of each calendar year or at the completion of a manned
underwater operation.
Section 17
Reporting of drilling and well activities
Drilling and well activities shall be reported to the
Petroleum Safety Authority’s data base Common Drilling Reporting System (CDRS)
on a daily basis, and before 1200 noon on weekdays.
The
reporting shall be done using the well and well path designation as well as the
classification mentioned in Regulations
of 18 June 2001 No. 749 relating to resource management in the petroleum
activities (the Resource Management Regulations) Section 10 on well and well path designation etc.
The
reporting shall be according to the criteria and the format given in the user’s manual for the data
base mentioned in the first
paragraph.
Section 18
Reporting of damage to loadbearing structures and
pipeline systems
The operator shall report damage to and incidents in
connection with loadbearing structures and pipeline
systems to the Petroleum Safety Authority’s data base Corrosion and Damage
(CODAM).
The
reporting shall be according to the criteria and the format given in the user’s manual for the data base
mentioned in the first paragraph.
CHAPTER V
ENTRY INTO FORCE
These regulations enter into force on 1 January 2002.
