Offshore Installations (Well Control) (Amendment) Regulations 1991

Statutory Instruments

1991 No. 308

OFFSHORE INSTALLATIONS

Offshore Installations (Well Control) (Amendment) Regulations 1991

Made

21st February 1991

Laid before Parliament

27th February 1991

Coming into force

27th February 1991

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 6(1) and (3) of, and paragraph 5(2) of the Schedule to, the Mineral Workings (Offshore Installations) Act 1971(1) (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) and all other powers enabling him in that behalf, and after consulting pursuant to section 7(1) of the Act with organisations in the United Kingdom appearing to him to be representative of those persons who will be affected, hereby makes the following Regulations:

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Offshore Installations (Well Control) (Amendment) Regulations 1991 and shall come into force on 1st April 1991.

2.—(1) For regulation 2(2) of the Offshore Installations (Well Control) Regulations 1980(2), (hereinafter referred to as “the Regulations”) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

• “No person shall be appointed or shall act as a drilling supervisor unless he is the holder of a certificate granted within the preceding two years by the Secretary of State on the recommendation of the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Board or its successor, the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation Limited, that he has an adequate knowledge of well contrl techniques including, in the case of a drilling supervisor, those relating to the safe resumption of normal working.”

(2) Regulation 2(3) of the Regulation and the Schedule thereto are hereby revoked.

Colin Moynihan

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department of Energy

21st February 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Regulation 2(2) of the Offshore Installations (Well Control) Regulations 1980 (“the 1980 Regulations”) provides that a driller or drilling supervisor must hold a certificate granted by the Secretary of State on the recommendation of the Petroleum Industry Training Board (“the PITB”) or, until 1st January 1983, one of the certificates specified in the Schedule to those Regulations.

The PITB was renamed the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Board (“the OPITB”) by virtue of the Industrial Training (Offshore Petroleum Board) Order 1982 (S.I. 1982 No. 921).

On 1st April 1991 the business of the OPITB will be transferred to a limited company, the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation Limited (“OPITO Ltd”). Accordingly, these Regulations amend the 1980 Regulations to provide that a driller or drilling supervisor must hold either a certificate granted on the recommendation (during or after April 1991) of OPITO Ltd.

Regulation 2(3) and the Schedule to the 1980 Regulations, which are now spent, are revoked.

(1)

1971 c. 61; section 1 was repealed and re-enacted by the Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Act 1982 (c. 23), section 24.

(2)

S.I. 1980/1759.