Canada–Nova Scotia Offshore Area Petroleum Operations Framework Regulations (SOR/2024-26)

Marginal note:Passive fire and blast protection

• 112 (1) An operator must ensure that an installation is designed and constructed with passive fire and blast protection.

• Marginal note:Design of passive fire protection

  (2) The design of the passive fire protection must

  • (a) not take into account the cooling effect from active firefighting equipment; and

  • (b) take into account the need to inspect and maintain the passive fire protection components and the structures, divisions and equipment they are intended to protect.

• Marginal note:Divisions

  (3) The operator must ensure that the installation is divided such that spacing and barriers protect against accidental events and loads identified in the risk assessment conducted under subsection 107(1) or mitigate their effects.

• Marginal note:Barriers — safety plan and environmental protection plan

  (4) The operator must ensure that barriers are designed, arranged, installed and maintained in accordance with the measures referred to in clauses 9(2)(b)(v)(C) and 10(2)(b)(v)(C) that are described in the operator’s safety plan and environmental protection plan, respectively.

• Marginal note:Barriers — requirements

  (5) Barriers must be designed, arranged, installed and maintained to

  • (a) contain fire, smoke, explosions and hazardous gas and prevent their effects from spreading into adjacent areas;

  • (b) protect persons from fire, smoke and explosions for the time necessary to enable them to escape to a temporary safe refuge;

  • (c) maintain for the necessary time, as determined on the basis of the safety studies referred to in section 116, the integrity of temporary safe refuges and of associated facilities that allow for communication, command, monitoring, control and evacuation against the effects of fire or explosion;

  • (d) protect safety-critical elements and equipment that are to remain operational in the event of an emergency from failure or malfunction caused by the effects of fire or explosion; and

  • (e) maintain the installation’s structural integrity against the effects of fire or explosion for the time necessary to safely evacuate all persons.

• Marginal note:Barriers — level of protection

  (6) The level of fire and blast protection that each barrier must provide is to be based on the results of the risk assessment conducted under subsection 107(1).

• Marginal note:Barriers — penetrations and openings

  (7) A barrier must not have any penetrations or openings unless

  • (a) the penetration or opening is necessary for the functionality of the installation;

  • (b) the barrier is equipped to maintain its overall fire and blast integrity despite the penetration or opening; and

  • (c) if there is a means of closing the penetration or opening, that means can be activated automatically or from outside the space being protected.

• Marginal note:Barrier components

  (8) The operator must ensure that barrier components are certified by a competent third party.

• Marginal note:Bulkheads — production installation

  (9) Unless the other combined features of a production installation can be demonstrated to provide at least the same level of protection, the operator must ensure that the following bulkheads are capable of preventing the passage of smoke and flame and of limiting the temperature rise on the unexposed face of the bulkhead to an average increase of 139°C and a maximum increase of 180°C above the initial temperature following 120 minutes of exposure to a hydrocarbon fire:

  • (a) those external bulkheads of the temporary safe refuges, main control centre, control stations, accommodations areas, embarkation stations and evacuation points, other than aircraft landing areas, that face production areas or wellheads; and

  • (b) the bulkheads that segregate the wellhead and processing areas from other areas of the installation.

• Marginal note:Classification society rules

  (10) The operator must ensure that the passive fire and blast protection for an installation that does not hold a valid certificate of class issued by a classification society is at least equivalent to the protection required under the rules of a classification society for a mobile offshore drilling unit.