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§ 9 Acceptance criteria for major accident risk and environmental risk

The operator and the party responsible for operating a mobile facility, shall set acceptance criteria for major accident risk and for environmental risk associated with acute pollution.
Acceptance criteria shall be set for
  1. the personnel on the offshore or onshore facility as a whole, and for personnel groups exposed to particular risk,
  2. loss of main safety functions for offshore petroleum activities,
  3. acute pollution from the offshore or onshore facility,
  4. damage to third party.
The acceptance criteria shall be used when assessing results from risk analyses, cf. Section 17. Cf. also Section 11 of the Framework Regulations.
Section last changed: 01 January 2018

The acceptance criteria that the party responsible sets for the design of a facility, has great significance for that the acceptance criteria can be met in the operational phase. Hence, both the party responsible for operating a mobile facility and the operator shall set acceptance criteria in areas under their responsibility.
Acceptance criteria as mentioned in the first subsection, shall express and represent an upper limit for what is considered an acceptable risk level for the various categories mentioned in literas a to d. As ensues from Section 11 of the Framework Regulations, complying with health, safety and environmental legislation constitutes an important parameter for this upper limit and it is accordingly not permitted to set aside specific requirements in the health, safety and environmental legislation in respect of risk calculation. Additional risk reduction shall always be considered, even if the results of risk analyses or risk assessments indicate a level of risk that is within the acceptance criteria, cf. Section 11 of the Framework Regulations.
The acceptance criteria shall be formulated so that they are in accordance with the requirement for suitable risk and preparedness analyses, cf. Section 17, and are suitable for providing decision-making support in relation to the risk analyses and risk assessments carried out.
Major accident means an acute incident such as a major spill, fire or explosion that immediately or subsequently entails multiple serious personal injuries and/or loss of human lives, serious harm to the environment and/or loss of major financial assets.
Acceptance criteria for acute pollution shall include the risk of acute pollution to occur (the area of authority of the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority) as well as the risk of harm to the external environment/environmental risk (the area of authority of the Norwegian Environment Agency).

Offshore petroleum activities
See Annex A of the NORSOK Z-013 standard for a description of different types of acceptance criteria that may be used for major accident risk and environmental risk as mentioned in subsection 2 literas a, c and d. See Annex B Chapter 4 of the standard for a complementary description of the acceptance criteria for loss of main safety functions as mentioned in subsection 2 litera b, cf. Section 11 of the Facilities Regulations. For information, see also Section 7 of the Facilities Regulations.
The operators that have facilities and activities in the same area, should cooperate on principles for establishing acceptance criteria, so that they are in a comparable form among operators, and so that they form a suitable basis for e.g. establishing joint emergency preparedness, cf. Section 21 of the Framework Regulations.