The IRF was founded in May 1994 in Houston, Texas, during an informal meeting between offshore regulatory authorities from the United States, Norway, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The initiative emerged from a need for the authorities to cooperate internationally in the same way as the oil companies did. The first formal meeting was held in Stavanger in June 1995, with the participation of representatives from a number of countries.
Isolation
While the oil companies already had well-established international cooperation networks, the offshore regulatory authorities worked largely in isolation. This made them easier to play off against each other by an international industry that sought flexible regulations.
The objective of the IRF was therefore simple: the authorities had to cooperate in the same way as the oil companies did.
Through the IRF, the regulatory authorities share learning from supervision, knowledge projects and work on the development of regulations and standards.
"The IRF has been pivotal in efforts to promote a safety culture in the petroleum industry internationally. Although the regimes in the member countries vary, we recognise that we have much to learn from each other", says Anne Myhrvold, the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority’s Director General.
From information exchange to cooperation
One of the most important lessons the IRF has expounded is the need for rapid and open information exchange. The forum established a principle that information about incidents should be shared as quickly as possible across national borders.
New communication technologies, such as the Internet and email, provided a useful boost; the regulatory authorities could now share documents, video conferences and technical reports across borders and time zones.
Information exchange gradually turned into more practical cooperation. A turning point came in 2005, when the first working groups were established. Today, countries not only learn from each other, they also learn together.
New major accidents underscore the need
The Montara incident off Australia in 2009 and the Macondo disaster in 2010, which caused 11 deaths, led to a worldwide focus on safety in the offshore petroleum industry. The incidents revealed systematic weaknesses in regulations, allocation of responsibilities and emergency preparedness, and it was clear that international regulatory authorities had to cooperate more closely to prevent similar accidents.
The accidents also underscored the IRF’s role as an international coordinator and knowledge sharer. The forum was a central arena in which regulatory authorities from different countries could share experiences, review incidents and create common guidelines, notably in the work to establish new technology for well capping.
From five to eleven countries
The IRF originally consisted of five countries: Australia, Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. Today, the forum has 11 member countries, with the Netherlands, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, Denmark and Ireland having joined over the years.
Member countries meet annually, taking turns to host. In order to share knowledge more widely, a separate conference is organised every second to third year, in which representatives from other countries participate. The next conference will be held in Canada in October 2025.
Challenging the industry
The IRF has highlighted some important risk challenges to encourage the industry to address these collectively.
Three risk topics have been identified:
- Prevention of well control incidents – greater emphasis on prevention of incidents, particularly with regard to pore pressure and fracture gradient prediction and monitoring.
- Digitalisation – reducing risks from automated systems with a human-centred design approach.
- Investigation quality/sharing and application of learnings – improve investigation quality and improve ways to embed learnings from past incidents and near misses.
Forward-looking
In 2024, the IRF expanded its cooperation to include more than petroleum, with a separate subcommittee on renewable energy production (offshore wind).
With climate change, the energy transition and new offshore technologies, the IRF’s activities are becoming increasingly complex, and the need for international regulatory cooperation is now more important than ever.
“Cooperation is and will be the key to safety,” asserts Myhrvold.