Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Application

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), within territorial waters these Regulations shall apply to and in relation to—

(a) any installation and any activity on it;

(b) any activity, including diving operations, in connection with an installation, or any activity which is immediately preparatory thereto, whether carried on from the installation itself, on or from a vessel or in any other manner, other than—

(i) transporting, towing or navigating the installation; and

(ii) any activity on or from a vessel being used as a stand-by vessel;

(c) diving operations involving the survey and preparation of the sea bed for an installation; and

(d) a well and any activity in connection with it and an activity which is immediately preparatory to any such activity.

(2) Paragraph (1)(d) includes keeping a vessel on station for the purpose of working on a well but otherwise does not include navigation or an activity connected with navigation.

(3) These Regulations shall apply to a well in that part of Northern Ireland which does not comprise territorial waters, and activities in relation to it, only if—

(a) it is drilled from an installation; or

(b) it is drilled with a view to the extraction of petroleum.

(4) In paragraph (3) “petroleum” means any mineral oil or relative hydrocarbon and natural gas existing in its natural condition in strata, but does not include coal or bituminous shales or other stratified deposits from which oil can be extracted by destructive distillation.