The Petroleum and gas industry is increasingly faced with an array of environment, health and safety issues. Standards with respect to the inter-phase between the industry and the various environmental compartments derive from available and applicable technology in any sector of the industry. Industry operators have evolved to become self regulatory in some instances while in others, they wait to comply with prescriptive regulations and respond to the degree of their enforcement. This paper discusses the emergence and growth of HSE awareness as pioneered by the regulatory department for the Nigerian Petroleum and Gas Industry. The institutional framework for the establishment and management of HSE programmes specific to the industry are discussed. The evolving regulations deriving from the indigeneously styled framework are juxtaposed with the advancements and achievements over the period of its existence, with special reference to the use and discharge of drilling fluids and other chemicals in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry. Future challenges and anticipated achievements are discussed against the backdrop of global expectations and practices bearing in mind the inherent complexities of a mono-product based developing economy, such as Nigeria's.

No abstract