Health, Safety & Environmental Performance

Operators must take all reasonable precautions to ensure offshore oil and gas activities are conducted in a safe and responsible manner. We make sure that goals for health, safety and environmental performance are properly established in operators’ plans and management systems and that actual performance is measured and reported on.

Operators must maintain safe operations and protect the environment in accordance with requirements described in our Regulatory Framework. Operators submit plans, such as a safety plan and environmental protection plan, in support of an application for authorization to conduct oil and gas activities. In these plans, health, safety and environmental performance expectations are established, which operators are then held accountable to achieve. Performance is measured against these expectations and reported on regularly

Before we issue an authorization allowing offshore activities to commence, we make sure operators describe how they will ensure health, safety and environmental protection and that they have the necessary policies, procedures, plans, equipment and sufficiently trained and competent personnel in place to conduct their operations accordingly. We verify operators’ compliance with regulatory requirements and other commitments made through audits and inspections using a risk-based approach to identify areas of concern or potential risk. Furthermore, we monitor and follow-up on reportable incidents and near misses (including potential near misses).

Learn more about statistics and reports we receive and the audits and inspections we complete below.

For more information on any of the documents listed, including current or archived, please contact us at info@cnsopb.ns.ca.

Quarterly Disabling Injury StatisticsOperators are required to report incidents and events to us that occur on any marine installation or structure, passenger craft, vessel or aircraft in the course of conducting any work or activity related to an authorization. View our quarterly reports below.

Spills to the SeaAny discharge of petroleum (including but not limited to crude oil, natural gas, condensate, lubricants, hydraulic oils, fuels, petroleum based synthetic drilling fluids, or any other refined petroleum product) that enters the sea in the offshore area as a result of oil and gas activities, other than one that is authorized under the Accord Acts or the regulations must be reported as a spill. View Spills to the Sea reports here.

Unauthorized DischargesAn unauthorized discharge is when a substance or mixture is discharged from a production or drilling installation in an amount or at a concentration in excess of the limits described in a operator’s Environmental Protection Plan, or the substance or the manner of discharge is not described in that plan. View Unauthorized Discharge reports here.

* View our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines for more details

**While the reporting of unauthorized discharges to us and investigation of them where necessary, has always been a requirement, we began posting this information as of November of 2017.

Summary

Details

2023-2024 April 1, 2023 - March 31, 2024
2022-2023 April 1, 2022 - March 31, 2023

2021-2022

April 1, 2021 - March 31, 2022

2020-2021

April 1, 2020 - March 31, 2021

2019-2020

April 1, 2019 - March 31, 2020

2018-2019

April 1, 2018 - March 31, 2019

2017-2018

November 1, 2017 - March 31, 2018

 

Incident Reporting

We developed Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines to assist operators and other workplace parties in understanding how to meet the regulatory requirements and to describe exactly what our expectations are.

For all reportable incidents, we verify that operators have taken the appropriate actions to determine the cause of the incident and to prevent future incidents from happening. We review available information to determine trends, common themes and to identify specific areas for improvements as required.

Our Safety Officers, specializing in occupational health and safety and operational safety, and our Conservation Officers, specializing in environmental protection, may also conduct an independent investigation into health, safety and environmental incidents that occur at offshore worksites, depending on the nature and severity of the incident.

Learn more about how operators report incidents and events to us below. Details about our expectations are outlined in our Incident Reporting and Investigations Guidelines

Incident NotificationAll reportable incidents and events must be communicated to us. Depending on the nature of the incident or event, operators must report verbally or in writing, or both.

Immediate Verbal Notification

Operators must contact our on-call Duty Officer for incidents or events that require immediate verbal notification. A description of these types of incidents or events that require an immediate verbal notification can be found in our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines.

Written Notification

Operators are required to provide written notification to us as soon as reasonably practicable, but no later than 24 hours after the operator has become aware of an event or incident. Additional information on the classification of incidents and other reportable events, can be found in our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines.

Operators must use our written notification form when reporting an incident.

Written notifications can be submitted by email at incident@cnsopb.ns.ca.

Incident Investigation ReportsThe regulations require operators to complete Incident Investigation Reports and submit them to us within a defined period of time.

Incident investigation reports must identify the causal factors, root cause(s) and actions to prevent reoccurrence. The report must be submitted to us within the required time frame:

  • Safety related incident - no later than 14 days following the incident
     
  • Other types of incidents - no later than 21 days following the incident

We have a standard Incident Summary Form, which is to be submitted in conjunction with the Investigation Report.

The Incident Summary and Investigation Report may be submitted electronically at incident@cnsopb.ns.ca.

Additional information is available in our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines.

Quarterly Incident Statistics ReportingOperators must submit statistics on injuries and occupational illnesses to us on a quarterly basis.

Operators are required to submit a quarterly statistics report within 15 days of the end of each quarter. The report must contain a statistical summary of exposure hours, occupational injuries/illnesses and lost/restricted workdays that occurred during the quarter. 

We have a standard Quarterly Statistics Report which must be completed by an operator.

The report must be submitted by email at incident@cnsopb.ns.ca.

Additional information is available in our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines.

Safety and Environmental Annual ReportsOperators are required to submit Safety and Environmental Reports to us yearly.

Safety Reports

Operators are required to submit an annual Safety Report summarizing injuries, safety-related incidents and near misses that have occurred. The report must also outline efforts undertaken to improve safety. The report is required to be submitted by March 31 of each year.

Additional information is available in our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines and in our Drilling and Production Guidelines.

The report must be submitted by email at incident@cnsopb.ns.ca.

Environmental Reports

Operators are required to submit an annual Environmental Report summarizing environmental incidents, spill contingency planning exercises or other environmental contingency planning exercises. The report must also include a section on continuous improvements of environmental management systems and associated performance. The report is required to be submitted by March 31 of each year.

Additional information is available in our Incident Reporting and Investigation Guidelines and in our Drilling and Production Guidelines.

The report must be submitted to us by email at incident@cnsopb.ns.ca.