“The National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority will regulate safety on all of Australia’s offshore petroleum facilities on behalf of the State, Northern Territory and Federal Governments,” said Macfarlane.

“It will start operations on 1 January 2005 and the appointment of the chief executive officer is an important milestone in its establishment,” he said.

John Clegg, is currently the operations manager of the Offshore Division in the UK Health and Safety Executive and has had a distinguished career as a UK Civil servant. He has wide experience in the regulation of health and safety in the offshore petroleum industry.

“The United Kingdom offshore petroleum industry is considerably bigger than that of Australia’s and the UK pioneered the development of the safety case approach to regulation,” said Macfarlane.

Clegg was an officer in the Royal Navy before becoming a Specialist Inspector in the UK Health and Safety Executive. His thirty year career included work as an operations manager in the Offshore Safety Division.