Safety Assurance in the oil and gas industries—Review of practices and way forward for Nigeria

Abstract

Amongst the benefits of industrialisation are improved welfare and social standards of the citizens, while the dangers of industrialisation often manifest in the many industrial based health, safety and environmental challenges across the world. As Nations strive steadily towards improvement in the welfare and social standards through industrialisation, it is also the statutory responsibility of national Governments to keep safe her people. One way safety is achieved is through legislation, policies and regulation. In this article, the use of Policies, Legislations and Regulations in ensuring safety is discussed in details. Useful examples from countries where these means to safety assurance are well established like Europe and America are further cited. Emphasis is laid on the fact that risk is mostly location-specific as such safety policies, legislations and regulations may reflect country-specific experiences with activities in the industry. The position of the article is that while it may beneficial to share experiences by a way of interchange of the regulatory document, caution should be applied not to overuse such documents. Rather such documents may either serve as a guide for countries intending to create their own regulatory documents or be reviewed and adapted in light of localised experiences before being applied.