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Requirements for Production Safety Cases
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| 4 Requirements for Production Safety Cases Section 4.1 provides guidance on the scope of a Production Safety Case. Sections 4.2 to 4.7 provide the structure and outline contents fora Production Safety Case. Demonstration of the adherence to the prescriptive requirements set out in section 3 must be addressed where relevant within the Production Safety Case. 4.1 Scope of a Production Safety Case To carry on a production activity, the petroleum undertaking must hold a Production Safety Permit for that specific production activity which will be issued pursuant to an approved Production Safety Case and, in respect of new production activities (or production activities which involve a material change a corresponding approved Design Safety Case. A Production Safety Case must demonstrate that the safety arrangements fora designated production activity ensure that the risk associated with the activity remains ALARP. The Production Safety Case should include a generic description of any Well Work Activity that is capable of being carried out from a Production Installation. For example, BOP arrangements should be described in the Production Safety Case. However when the Well Work Activity is carried out that requires the BOP, a Well Work Safety Case must be submitted and would need to show that the BOP arrangement was appropriate for the well. A Production Safety Case must cover the entire range of production activities which a petroleum undertaking has been authorised to carry on pursuant to its Petroleum Lease and associated Plan of Development. In principle, this would all be contained in a single document. Asset out below however, the CER may require that separate safety cases are submitted in respect of different parts of the petroleum infrastructure in order to facilitate assessment. Where a petroleum undertaking is proposing to carry on a production activity where there is no above surface infrastructure offshore, but there are subsea wells controlled from an onshore Facility, a single Production Safety Case, covering the entirety of that petroleum activity and associated petroleum infrastructure can be submitted. To ensure that all risks relevant to the proposed production activity are addressed, the Production Safety Casein this instance must coverall petroleum infrastructure within the boundary fence of the onshore Facility within its scope (regardless of whether the petroleum infrastructure is necessary to carry on the specific production activity which is the subject to the safety case application. In this scenario any offshore pipelines would also be included in the Production Safety Case. 21 Where a petroleum undertaking has had a plan of development submitted pursuant to a petroleum lease approved by the Minister prior to the publication of these Guidelines, the petroleum undertaking shall not be required to submit a Design Safety Casein the first instance. Where a petroleum undertaking is proposing to carry on a production activity where there is above surface petroleum infrastructure offshore and subsea wells controlled from that offshore infrastructure, a single Production Safety Case, covering the entirety of that offshore petroleum infrastructure and operations can be submitted. To ensure that all the risks relevant to the proposed production activity are addressed, the Production Safety Case must coverall petroleum infrastructure related to that production activity as well as any other petroleum infrastructure that could have a bearing on the hazards in carrying out the production activity, or is controlled from that location (for example all subsea tiebacks and pipelines) regardless of whether that petroleum infrastructure is necessary to carry on the specific production activity which is the subject to the safety case application. Where a petroleum undertaking is proposing to carry on a production activity which involves a manned offshore Facility and a manned onshore Facility, two separate Production Safety Cases should be submitted one related to the manned offshore Facility the offshore Production Safety Case) and one related to the manned onshore Facility the onshore Production Safety Case. This is appropriate as each Facility presents a different risk profile to workers and members of the public and it would be too cumbersome to have a single Production Safety Casein such a scenario. The offshore Production Safety Case will be required to cover the petroleum infrastructure related to the production activity from the wells through to a suitable point, such as the beach or pipeline landing valve on the shore. To ensure that all the risks relevant to the proposed production activity are addressed, the offshore and onshore Production Safety Cases must coverall petroleum infrastructure related to that production activity as well as any other petroleum infrastructure that could have a bearing on the hazards in carrying out the production activity, or is controlled from that location (for example all subsea tiebacks and pipelines, or all petroleum infrastructure within the boundary fence) regardless of whether that petroleum infrastructure is necessary to carry on the specific production activity which is the subject to the safety case application. The onshore Production Safety Case will be required to coverall petroleum infrastructure from where the scope of the offshore Production Safety Case ends to and including the onshore Facility (included associated pipelines. Both offshore and onshore Production Safety Cases must be approved by the CER before the associated Production Safety Permit will be issued. Where a single piece of petroleum infrastructure is used by more than one petroleum undertaking in respect of petroleum activities carried out pursuant to more than one petroleum authorisation (e.g. anew subsea tieback from a well to an existing offshore installation, such that the offshore installation is used by the original development and the new subsea tieback, safety considerations render it necessary that only one SMS should apply to that piece of petroleum infrastructure. However, in this case, each petroleum undertaking utilising the petroleum infrastructure will be obliged to discharge its obligations under the Act, and so to ensure all risks in respect of that petroleum infrastructure are reduced to a level that is ALARP. In order to demonstrate this, each submitted Production Safety Case must coverall activities and petroleum infrastructure required to carry on the designated petroleum activity. However, where appropriate on a case by case basis, the Production Safety Case of either petroleum undertaking may refer to and adopt the Production Safety Case of the other petroleum undertaking insofar as it relates to the production activities carried on by the shared petroleum infrastructure (the adopted safety case. In this case, what is covered in each Production Safety Case must be clearly delineated (e.g. for the new subsea tieback, its safety case could, in principle, refer and adopt the entire updated offshore Production Safety Case. The rationale for such an approach is to avoid a situation where the management of risks at the same piece of petroleum infrastructure is subject to multiple Safety Management Systems, thereby creating the potential for misunderstanding and contradiction. For the avoidance of doubt however, in adopting the relevant portion of the third party Production Safety Case, the petroleum undertaking is indicating that the adopted safety case discharges its obligations under the Act. The adoption of a third party safety casein noway mitigates or reduces the liability of the petroleum undertaking for the safe operation of the petroleum infrastructure at issue or otherwise releases the petroleum undertaking from its obligations under the Act. The adopted safety case is for all purposes considered part of the petroleum undertaking’s safety case. Download 0.73 Mb. Share with your friends:
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