Since the beginning of February of this year I started a new project. I left the onshore facility in the south of Italy to follow a new activity for the offshore platforms in the Adriatic Sea: the RGR - Relazioni grandi Rischi.

Let me give you a brief summary of what happened.

20th 04 2010

The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent massive leak from the oil well on the sea bottom caused significant damage.

13th October 2010

Following the  incident the European Commission expressed its initial views on the safety of offshore oil and gas operations in its communication ‘Facing the challenge of the safety of offshore oil and gas activities’. 

28th 06 2013

On the 28th June 2013, the EC published the Directive 2013/30/EU on the Safety of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations (the Directive) [Link].

The objective of this Directive is to reduce as far as possible the occurrence of major accidents related to offshore oil and gas operations and to limit their consequences.

The Directive has been designed to mitigate the risk of major offshore oil and gas incidents by requiring owners and operators to identify and manage major accident hazards and to put in place effective response strategies should an incident occur.

The Directive aims to implement best regulatory practices across all EU jurisdictions with the objective to strengthen EU’s preparedness and response for offshore emergencies.

The Directive requires national authorities to verify environmental protection measures and the emergency preparedness of rigs and platforms, in addition to improving and clarifying the EU liability and compensation provisions.

19th 07 2016

The Directive is implemented in Italy through the Legislative Decree n. 145, 18th August 2015 "Attuazione della direttiva 2013/30/UE sulla sicurezza delle operazioni in mare nel settore degli idrocarburi e che modifica la direttiva 2004/35/CE"  [Link].

The new regulations came into force on 19 July 2016 (see art. 34 com. 1 D.Lgs. 145/15).