Official blog of Swansea University's IISTL, where we keep you up to date with the latest maritime and commercial legal news.
What’s in a name? From DECC to DBEIS to OGA.
On 1 October 2016 the Energy Act 2016 (Commencement No.2 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2016 (the “Regulations”) will bring into force most of the sections of the Energy Act 2016 which relate to oil & gas operations. Various powers will be transferred from the former Department of Energy and Climate Change (‘DECC’) – which became the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (‘DBEIS’) over the summer – to the Oil and Gas Authority (‘OGA’). The powers transferred will be the licensing and regulatory powers, and decommissioning powers, under the Petroleum Act 1998, as well as certain powers relating to assessment of offshore tax liability. DBEIS remains the principal environmental regulator for the offshore oil and gas industry and the changes should not materially affect the operation of the Offshore Safety Directive Regulator (‘OSDR’), responsible for overseeing industry compliance Offshore Safety Directive 2013. The OSDR is a partnership between the Health and Safety Executive and DBEIS.
Tomorrow the movie ‘Deepwater Horizon’ opens worldwide. A must-see for all concerned with offshore oil and gas operations.
Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.
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