Platts: EU backs away from stricter offshore oil, gas rules: MEPs

The EU is backing away from more stringent rules for offshore oil and gas safety as a European Parliamentary energy committee gave a signal vote on Tuesday to change the legal basis of offshore rules from a regulation to a directive in Brussels.

The energy committee agreed to change the legal basis of the European Commission's draft proposals, unveiled last October, from a detailed, technical regulation binding all 27 EU countries, to a more high-level directive that governments would have to transpose into national law. A directive will allow greater flexibility to countries to adapt the rules to existing systems.  MORE