Offshore Oil and Gas Installations Security

An International Perspective

Mikhail Kashubsky

• Publisher: Informa Law from Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317746140
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Maritime Law
• Index: Law

Oil and natural gas, which today account for over 60% of the world's energy supply, are often produced by offshore platforms. One third of all oil and gas comes from the offshore sector. However, offshore oil and gas installations are generally considered intrinsically vulnerable to deliberate attacks. The changing security landscape and concerns about the threats of terrorism and piracy to offshore oil and gas installations are major issues for energy companies and governments worldwide.

But, how common are attacks on offshore oil and gas installations? Who attacks offshore installations? Why are they attacked? How are they attacked? How is their security regulated at the international level? How has the oil industry responded? This timely and first of its kind publication answers these questions and examines the protection and security of offshore oil and gas installations from a global, industry-wide and company-level perspective.

Looking at attacks on offshore installations that occurred throughout history of the offshore petroleum industry, it examines the different types of security threats facing offshore installations, the factors that make offshore installations attractive targets, the nature of attacks and the potentially devastating impacts that can result from attacks on these important facilities. It then examines the international legal framework, state practice and international oil and gas industry responses that aim to address this vital problem. Crucially, the book includes a comprehensive dataset of attacks and security incidents involving offshore oil and gas installations entitled the Offshore Installations Attack Dataset (OIAD).

This is an indispensable reference work for oil and gas industry professionals, company security officers, policy makers, maritime lawyers and academics worldwide.

CHAPTER 1

OFFSHORE PETROLEUM SECURITY CONTEXT

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1 Introduction

Oil and natural gas today account for over 60 per cent of the world’s energy supply. One-third of it comes from the offshore sector. This makes the offshore oil and gas industry a significant component in the functioning of the global economy. To extract oil and natural gas from the seabed the offshore industry uses a range of offshore installations of various shapes and sizes, designed to perform certain functions related to exploration and exploitation of offshore oil and gas resources. The global nature of the oil and gas industry means that offshore installations operate in diverse legal, cultural and political environments. Due to their economic importance and due to being part of the energy sector, offshore oil and gas installations are regarded as elements of ‘critical infrastructure’ in a number of countries.¹

At the same time, offshore oil and gas installations are considered to be intrinsically vulnerable to deliberate attacks, and, if attacked, the impacts may be significant. This potentially makes offshore installations attractive targets for attacks. Violence at sea is a very common occurrence today including in areas where major offshore oil and gas activities take place and offshore installations have been subjected to deliberate attacks and unlawful interferences on a number of occasions by different types of adversaries.²

With the increasing number of offshore petroleum developments around the world, the offshore petroleum industry and its importance and contribution to the global economy have become more widely appreciated.³ Petroleum producing states, and their energy-hungry consumers that are highly dependent on stable oil and gas supplies, have become more concerned about the protection of offshore installations from deliberate attacks and potential impacts such attacks can have on oil and gas supplies, oil and gas prices, petroleum revenue and the environment. Concern about the threat of terrorism and cyber threats to offshore oil and gas installations is a major issue for energy companies and governments worldwide.

The protection of offshore oil and gas installations from attacks and interferences is a challenging task. In recent years, the international community took steps to improve the international regulatory framework for maritime security, which by extension includes the security of offshore oil and gas installations. Governments and the offshore industry have also taken steps to enhance the security of offshore installations on the national level. However, these international regulatory aspects as well as responses of the industry and governments require further examination, as does the global and local security risk environment in which offshore installations operate.

This book examines the protection and security aspects of offshore oil and gas installations from a global perspective and addresses the following key questions:

• How common are attacks on offshore oil and gas installations?

• Where are offshore oil and gas installations attacked?

• What types of offshore installations are attacked and need to be protected?

• Who attacks offshore oil and gas installations?

• Why are offshore oil and gas installations attacked?

• How are offshore oil and gas installations attacked?

• What is the legal status of offshore oil and gas installations?

• How is offshore installations security regulated at the international level?

• How has the oil and gas industry responded to enhance offshore installations security?

• How can the existing offshore petroleum security arrangements be improved?

In doing so, it provides an overview of the global security environment in which offshore installations operate and attacks that have been carried out against offshore oil and gas installations worldwide (Chapter 1); an overview of the global offshore oil and gas industry and the types of offshore installations used in the offshore industry, and outlines some of the organisational and operational arrangements (Chapter 2); assesses security threats to offshore installations and evaluates the level of risk they pose (Chapter 3); analyses target selection considerations with a focus on attractiveness factors of offshore installations and considers scenarios of offshore attacks (Chapter 4); analyses the legal status of offshore installations in international law (Chapter 5); examines the international legal framework for the protection and security of offshore installations (Chapters 6 and 7); discusses the international petroleum industry responses relating to the protection and security of offshore installations (Chapter 8); summarises key issues, highlights areas of concern and makes recommendations for improvement in the security framework for offshore installations and identifies areas for further research (Chapter 9). It also contains a dataset of attacks on and unlawful interferences with offshore installations (see Appendix).

This chapter (Chapter 1) also introduces key terms and concepts that are used throughout this book, provides an overview of the global concerns about the security of offshore installations, and sets the context for the analysis in the subsequent chapters.

2 Key terms and concepts

Central to the topic of ‘offshore oil and gas installations security’ are four key terms: petroleum, offshore installations, security and offshore petroleum security. It is worth clarifying of these terms and concepts from the outset.

2.1 Petroleum

The word petroleum comes from the Greek words petro (meaning ‘rock’) and oleum (meaning ‘oil’). ‘In its strictest sense, petroleum includes only crude oil. By usage, however, petroleum includes both crude oil and natural gas.’⁴ Crude oil and natural gas are basically two different forms of petroleum.⁵ Crude oil and natural gas are both composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon and are referred to as ‘hydrocarbons’.⁶ For example, in Australian legislation, the definition of ‘petroleum’ includes any naturally occurring hydrocarbon, whether in a gaseous, liquid or solid state or any naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbons.⁷

Crude oil and natural gas are believed to be the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago.⁸ Crude oil is a complex mixture consisting of many different organic compounds, mostly alkanes, and smaller fractions of aromatics such as benzene.⁹ Natural gas commonly exists in mixtures with other hydrocarbons, principally ethane, propane, butane, pentanes, while raw natural gas also contains water vapour, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, helium, nitrogen and other compounds.¹⁰ Condensate is a mixture of hydrocarbons recovered from the natural gas stream that are liquid under normal temperature and pressure.¹¹

In the literature, the term ‘petroleum’ is often used interchangeably with the term ‘oil and gas’. In this book, the term petroleum is synonymous with ‘oil and gas’, and it is used as a collective term to refer to gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons including crude oil, natural gas, condensates and natural gas liquids, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and liquefied natural gas (LNG), but excluding refined petroleum products.

2.2 Offshore installations

The terminology used in the literature to refer to offshore petroleum installations varies. Offshore oil and gas installations are often referred to as ‘offshore platforms’, ‘offshore facilities’, ‘offshore structures’, ‘offshore units’ and ‘offshore rigs’. In this book, the preferred term is ‘offshore installation’, which is a generic term that refers to any type of offshore installation permanently or temporarily attached to the subsoil offshore, erected for the purpose of exploration and exploitation of offshore oil and gas resources. It includes fixed or mobile offshore installations utilised in the offshore oil and gas industry for the purposes of drilling for, production, storage, and loading/offloading of oil and gas, but excludes pipelines, subsea equipment and mooring systems.¹² The terms ‘offshore installation’, ‘offshore oil and gas installation’, ‘offshore petroleum installation’ and ‘installation’ are used interchangeably.

2.3 Security

The term ‘security’ can be understood in different ways.¹³ In simple terms, security means ‘the protection of people, property, and information’.¹⁴ From a broader perspective; however, it ‘may be seen as an emotive term, extending to a sense of safety and hence freedom from fear’.¹⁵ Security should not be confused with ‘safety’ as these are two distinct concepts. Safety refers to preventing and minimising accidents, whereas security usually refers to protection against deliberate acts.¹⁶ Security and safety ‘risk domains may entail quite different scenarios wit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Table of Contents
• Table of Conventions
• Figures and Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• 1 Offshore Petroleum Security Context
• 2 Offshore Assets and Operations
• 3 Offshore Security Threats
• 4 Offshore Target Selection Considerations
• 5 Legal Status of Offshore Oil and Gas Installations
• 6 Pre-9/11 International Regulatory Framework
• 7 Post-9/11 International Regulatory Responses
• 8 International Oil and Gas Industry Responses
• 9 Conclusion
• Afterword
• Appendix
• Selected bibliography
• Index