Journey
Set up a petroleum extraction business
Learning path for petroleum extraction businesses — crude oil and natural gas, onshore and offshore. Work out which regulations apply, put your workplace foundations in place, get the licences, permits and meet your major-hazard duties, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Petroleum extraction — crude oil and natural gas — is a high-hazard industry operating under a petroleum production licence, a process-safety stack and upstream petroleum taxation. On top of those sit site-specific controls: the offshore safety-case regime, COMAH for onshore major-hazard establishments, environmental permits and OPRED offshore oil-pollution permits. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions — those live in the guides it points to. This journey is the map: it tells you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Every petroleum extraction operator shares the same workplace foundation and petroleum production licence, but the offshore safety-case regime, COMAH, and the environmental and oil-pollution permits apply by installation type and location. Use the router guide to map out your obligations before you commit.
Which petroleum extraction regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to your business. A reference guide that routes you from the shared workplace foundation to the site-specific controls.
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Put your workplace foundations in place
This is the universal spine. Risk-assess the work, control hazardous substances under COSHH (hydrogen sulphide, benzene, mercury, NORM, drilling chemicals) and fire and explosion risk under DSEAR, keep plant safe under PUWER, manage manual handling and fire safety, hold employers' liability insurance and meet your equality and data protection duties. Build this in from the start.
Set up and run a safe petroleum extraction operation
The duties every petroleum extraction operator shares — general health and safety, COSHH and DSEAR controls, work equipment (PUWER), manual handling, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
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Get the licences, permits and meet major-hazard duties
The petroleum production licence from the NSTA is the gating requirement. Beyond that, whether you need an accepted safety case (offshore), COMAH compliance (onshore, inventory-dependent), an environmental permit (onshore) or an OPRED oil-pollution permit (offshore) depends on your operation. You also need to register for upstream petroleum taxation. This guide covers the lot.
Get the licences, permits and meet major-hazard duties for petroleum extraction
The petroleum production licence, offshore safety case, COMAH, onshore environmental permits, OPRED offshore oil-pollution permits and upstream petroleum taxation.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once the workplace spine is operating and the licences, permits and major-hazard duties are in place, take a step back and check the whole picture holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation — workplace, licensing, permitting, major-hazard and taxation — is genuinely met rather than assumed.
Petroleum extraction: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything — the workplace and employment duties, the petroleum production licence, site-specific permits, major-hazard duties and upstream taxation.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every business carries general obligations that apply beyond petroleum extraction and are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including the COSHH and DSEAR assessments that bite around hazardous and flammable hydrocarbons.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task: work out which rules apply, put your workplace foundations in place, get the licences, permits and meet the major-hazard duties, and verify the lot. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position before you start operations.