An international regulatory colleague brought this puzzling RigZone article to my attention. Quotes:
“From one perspective, one can look at the overall absence of risk – from this perspective, we can easily say that either the United Kingdom’s North Sea or Canada’s Nova Scotian continental shelf is the safest region for offshore oil and gas operations right now,” Robak told Rigzone.
“Canada’s offshore industry accounts for approximately one million barrels per day, and its geographic location along the Nova Scotian continental shelf has been a benefit in that there is little to no risk to its continued operation on a day-to-day basis,” Robak said.
Comments:
- Scotian shelf production ceased in 2018. All facilities were fully abandoned and decommissioned by November 2020. So yes, Scotian shelf oil and gas operations are the safest in the world, along with operations in the US Atlantic and other regions where there is zero activity.
- Canadian offshore oil production is currently about 7.5 million bbls per month (not 1 million bopd) and is entirely offshore Newfoundland.
- Subjective judgments about safety performance and risk should be backed up with data.
- The International Regulators’ Forum has a good framework for comparing safety performance. Unfortunately, their data have not been updated since 2020.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 