ABSTRACT
Regulatory regimes are vulnerable to annexation by an industry group. This applies to offshore regulation under the DEn when there was a progressive capture of the regulator by the offshore operators. But regulatory regimes are also vulnerable to more subtle forms of undermining, when regulatory perspectives and practices become susceptible to industry-driven realignment and containment. This latter strategy of containment has been deployed by the operators since Piper Alpha, in part because the former strategy of outright capture was simply no longer appropriate. This chapter examines in some detail the oil industry resistance to the attempted reconstruction of the offshore regulatory framework in the period after Piper Alpha, which has led to a gradual erosion of regulatory reform.
