The regulation of the United Kingdom's offshore oil and gas industry is undergoing radical restructuring, abandoning the traditional prescriptive approach. The final part of the restructuring programme is to introduce a non-prescriptive regime for drilling and other well operations. In future, the safety of drilling and well operations in UK waters will be enforced through review of a combination of safety cases and notification of well operations, backed up by a programme of inspections and audits. The regime will be supported by goal setting regulations which establish performance standards for wells and well operations.

Keywords:
abandonment, requirement, regulation, society of petroleum engineers, well operation, certificate, construction, upstream oil & gas, installation, workover
Subjects:
Well Planning, Drilling Operations, Pressure Management, Drilling Equipment, HSSE & Social Responsibility Management, Safety, Well control, Operational safety
Copyright 1995, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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