National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA) is the occupational health and safety (OHS) regulator for the Australian offshore petroleum industry. It is a Commonwealth statutory agency that regulates under the Offshore Petroleum Act 2006 in Commonwealth waters and designated coastal waters of the States and Northern Territory.

NOPSA regulates under a modern OHS performance based regime where the primary responsibility for ensuring health and safety lies with those who create risks and those who work with them. Each offshore facility is required to have a safety case that is accepted by NOPSA. The safety case sets out the operator's commitments to reducing risks to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable.

Under this regime, the operator of the offshore facility bears the principal duty and must take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the facility and its activities are safe and without risk to health. NOPSA's role as regulator is to provide independent assurance that health and safety risks are properly controlled. Once a safety case is accepted by NOPSA, the risk management commitments made by the operator must be complied with. These commitments are then verified by NOPSA during inspections of facilities.

Publication

• National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (Australia) NOPSA ... annual report. Perth, W.A. : NOPSA, 2005- . ISSN 1832-9845

http://www.nopsa.gov.au/