New safety rules for the oil and gas industry will come into force on 1 August 2008.
The new rules, which were adopted on 6 June 2008 by the State Committee for Industrial Safety, Labour Protection and Mining Supervision:
- will apply to everyone involved in design, construction,
extraction, repair or reconstruction aspects of oil and gas
production, as well as specialist organisations involved in
geophysical surveys, R&D, projects and construction,
engineering, balancing, commissioning and emergency
response
- contain detailed and comprehensive technical requirements
and incorporate key technical standards previously spread
across many documents
- require all organisations intending to engage in oil and
gas production or research to obtain a permit from the
Committee before doing so
- require each project for exploration, production and
equipping the oil and gas fields to be properly evaluated,
examined and approved before a permit is granted
- set out detailed requirements relating to staff,
equipment, machinery, tools and working conditions,
particularly for those working in confined spaces such as
wells
- prescribe safety standards for preparation works,
drilling and repairing the wells, and for the work programme
used for constructing wells
- set out a list of necessary technical and safety
characteristics for mining equipment including the emergency
response process
- include requirements for procedures such as using
sucker-rod pumps, coiled tubing installations, the cycling
process, water flooding, flowing wells and gas lift
operations, as well as for the intensification process,
repairs, oil and gas gathering and transportation
- specify that geophysical works may only be conducted by
specialist geophysical companies under agreements with
drilling and production companies
- stipulate that all geophysical research must be carried
out in the presence of representatives of the drilling team
and well owner and sets out requirements for drilling and
extraction activities and for geophysical equipment
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
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The original publication date for this article was 01/07/2008.
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