Brussels, 17/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger is urging the oil and gas industry to comply with high safety rules for offshore operations outside the EU and US.
Visiting the US on 17 July - in particular, for a meeting in Houston on Thursday with leaders of the US offshore industry - Oettinger called on oil and gas companies to apply stricter safety standards in international waters which are not covered by regulations protecting against accidents like that of the Deepwater Horizon platform at the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in Spring 2010, which caused an unprecedented oil spill.
The EU and US are both about to introduce new rules on the safety of offshore drilling, in the light of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. The EU's new legal framework is due to enter into force on 18 July.
The path to a strong and reliable culture of safety in offshore oil and gas operations depends on an industry that conforms to high standards, Oettinger stresses in a press release on 17 July, adding that European and American companies continue to be involved in accidents around the world.
“Under separate arrangements coming into force this year in Europe and the US, national regulators will exercise additional vigilance over oil and gas companies to ensure they accelerate the advances in technology and human understanding achieved since Macondo, whilst exercising stringent control of risks of major accidents at all times”, Oettinger states.
“We call upon oil and gas companies and drilling contractors operating in EU waters to respond to the challenge to their leadership in global safety and environmental protection. We call on them to exert their influence to see a rise in standards both rapidly and permanently, and to ensure the transparency of that achievement. Beginning without delay, we hope to see full and rigorous disclosure of safety data by all companies in the international industry associations' reports”, he concludes. (EH/transl.fl)