Risk Governance of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations

This book evaluates and compares risk regulation and safety management for offshore oil and gas operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway and Australia. It provides an interdisciplinary approach with legal, technological and sociological perspectives on efforts to assess and prevent major accidents and improve safety performance. Presented in three parts, it begins with a review of the factors involved in designing, implementing and enforcing a regulatory regime for industrial safety. It then evaluates the four regimes exploring the contextual factors that influence their design and implementation, their reliance on industrial expertise and standards, and the use of performance indicators. Finally the book assesses the resilience of the Norwegian regime, its capacity to keep pace with new technologies and emerging risks, respond to near miss incidents, encourage safety culture, incorporate vested rights of labor, and perform inspection and self-audit functions. This book is relevant for those in government, business and academia, and anyone involved in offshore safety issues.

1. A generic model for risk governance: concept and application to technological installations Ortwin Renn; 2. Modes of risk regulation for prevention of major industrial accidents Michael Baram and Preben H. Lindøe; 3. Values and norms - a basis for a safety culture Kathryn Mearns; 4. Optimising offshore health and safety inspections: how the markets could help Emre Üsenmez; 5. Safety regulation on the Norwegian continental shelf Knut Kaasen; 6. Health and safety regulation on the UKCs: evolution and future prospects John Paterson; 7. Preventing accidents in offshore oil and gas: the US regulatory regime Michael Baram; 8. A new policy direction in Australian offshore safety regulation Jan Hayes; 9. Safety indicators used by authorities in the petroleum industry of United Kingdom, United States, and Norway Helene Cecilie Blakstad; 10. Governmental enforced self-regulation: the Norwegian case Paul Bang and Olaf Thuestad; 11. Contested terrains in risk regulation: legitimacy challenges in implementation processes Jacob Kringen; 12. Boxing and dancing: tripartite collaboration as an integral part of a regulatory regime Ragnar Rosness and Ulla Forseth; 13. Emergent risk and new technologies Ole Andreas Engen; 14. Near major accidents: a challenge for regulator and the regulated Ole Andreas Engen; 15. Inspections, independence and intelligence Helge Ryggvik; 16. Advancing robust regulation: reflections and lessons to be learned Andrew Hale.

Preben H. Lindøe is Professor of Societal Safety at the University of Stavanger, Norway. He has an MS and a PhD on the implementation of 'enforced self-regulation' in Norway from the Technical University of Trondheim. He has worked within applied research for twenty-five years, including action-research methodology, occupational health and safety, risk regulation and safety management. His publications include various books (in Norwegian) as well as articles, papers and chapters in professional and academic journals, books and other media.
Michael Baram is Professor Emeritus at Boston University Law School where he directed the Center for Law and Technology. He was also a partner in the law firm Bracken and Baram for twenty-five years, and previously had been Associate Professor of Engineering and Assistant Dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research, publications, legal work and advisory activities have dealt with risk regulation, environmental law, product liability law, occupational safety and risk management in several technological sectors, including the chemicals, biotech, nuclear, and oil and gas industries. He is the author or editor of eight books, most recently Governing Risk in GM Agriculture (2010, with Mathilde Bourrier), and has published numerous articles.
Ortwin Renn is Professor and Chair of Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment at Stuttgart University, Germany. He directs the Stuttgart Research Center for Risk and Innovation at Stuttgart University and the non-profit company DIALOGIK, a research institute for the investigation of communication and participation processes in environmental policy making. Renn is primarily interested in risk governance, political participation and technology assessment. He has published more than 30 books and 250 articles, most prominently the monograph Risk Governance (2008).