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European Commission Proposals Risk Undermining Safety, says Oil & Gas UK

Responding to the publication of the European Commission’s proposals on offshore safety, Oil & Gas UK’s chief executive, Malcolm Webb, said: “Oil & Gas UK is opposed to blanket EU regulation of this country’s offshore oil and gas industry, which operates under a fully fit for purpose and robust regulatory regime.

Relinquishing regulatory control to the EU, which has no established competence in this matter and where only three out of the twenty-seven member states have an offshore oil and gas industry of real scale, risks undermining safety and environmental performance here in the UK.

“The EU could take other action, for example through a Directive as opposed to a Regulation, to bring member states outside the North Sea up to the high standards achieved in this area but blanket regulation of the type we understand is now being proposed will not, in our opinion, even achieve that end. Instead it will serve to confuse and complicate.

“Oil & Gas UK and its members will now take time to study and consider the full implications of the Commission’s proposals and will make representation to the appropriate parties of its position in due course.”

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