Notification and reporting in accordance with Section 79a of the Petroleum Regulations
In accordance with Section 79a of the Regulations to Act relating to Petroleum Activities (the Petroleum Regulations), the Norwegian Offshore Directorate must receive notifications and reports on incidents and other conditions that lead to shutdowns, reductions in petroleum production or impact implementation of activities in line with decisions made pursuant to the Petroleum Act and Petroleum Regulations.
The provision firstly applies to conditions that affect production and delivery of petroleum both for offshore and onshore facilities within the scope of the Petroleum Act. As resource manager and sector authority, the MoE (Ministry of Energy) and Norwegian Offshore Directorate need information which includes all parts of the petroleum activities. This is related to the obligation to provide information to responsible bodies in Norway and other countries’ authorities.
Based on Section 79a of the Petroleum Regulations, the obligation to notify does not apply in cases where the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) has been notified in accordance with Section 29 of the regulations relating to management and the duty to provide information in the petroleum activities and at certain onshore facilities (the Management Regulations). In such cases, the PSA will immediately notify the Norwegian Offshore Directorate.
Notification and reporting to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate will then primarily apply in the following cases:
Exploration drilling
In principle, the operator shall notify the Norwegian Offshore Directorate in the case of unforseen incidents in conjunction with exploration drilling. However, most such incidents will have met reporting requirements because of notification given to the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority or because of reporting in conjuction with for example deviations from work commitments or drilling programmes.
Production
Situations may arise which affect production, but which do not have to be reported according to the Management Regulations. For such situations, the operators for fields, transport systems and onshore facilities must notify the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. This includes unforeseen changes in production or shutdowns on own facilities, including pipelines and onshore facilities, as well as other places in the production or transport chain that impact petroleum deliveries. A planned shutdown is not included under this notification scheme.
Notification
The operator must notify the Norwegian Offshore Directorate as soon as possible regarding incidents and other conditions relating to:
- Facilities – full shutdown exceeding one day or expected delivery reduction of more than 15 mill. Sm3 gas or 15 000 Sm3 oil and condensate
- Central hubs
- Onshore facilities
Notifications are directed to the NPD’s on-call telephone (see form, norwegian only) with subsequent information via email to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s on-duty officer. The operator must provide the following information for all notifications:
- Field name/facility/name of installation
- Description of the incident
- Consequence for production
- Estimated duration of delayed production
- Operator’s point of contact
Reporting
When the situation is normalised, the operator must submit a report with the following information to the Norwegian Offshore Directorate’s on-duty officer.
- Field name/facility/name of installation
- Description of incident and remedial measures
- Actual consequence for deliveries and possible consequences for further operation
The above text is in accordance with the content in the letter sent to the operating companies on 7 March 2006, reference Norwegian Offshore Directorate 06/237.
Regulations can be found here.
Updated: 11/01/2024