ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the safety culture regulation experience should be questioned, drawing on the direct experience of Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) employees and on data from case studies from the oil and gas industry conducted in Norway. The PSA is responsible for developing and enforcing regulations that govern safety and the working environment in the petroleum activities on the Norwegian continental shelf and associated land facilities. The chapter approaches the proceduralization of safety through the perspectives of risk regulation and safety culture. It takes on a specific relevance given the 2010 BP oil rig accident in US, when regulatory context is being criticized for its lack of supervision over the control of offshore platforms. The concept of risk regulation has been used increasingly in the literature since the 1990s in legal, economic, political science, psychology and public policy studies.
