Biocide Use in Dutch Regulated sector of North Sea (update 6 May 2010)
Cefas, on behalf of the State Supervision of Mines (SSM) in the
Netherlands, is currently carrying out enquiries to identify if
substances deliberately added to offshore chemicals are biocidal in
their primary function or can act as biocides in a secondary
function. The deadline to complete the biocide form sent in an
Email dated the 12th of April 2010 was set to be
12th of May 2010. These enquiries were recently
discussed with the Netherlands competent authories by
representatives of the oil and gas operators (NOGEPA) and offshore
chemical suppliers (EOSCA) in the Netherlands, who requested an
extension to this deadline.
The NL competent authorities agreed with the industry to extend
the deadline to 15th of June 2010 and also to resend the amended
list of products registered at Cefas which may contain substances
with potential biocidal action. In the amended list, these
substances are mentioned by name and CAS number (except where the
identity of the identified substance is supplied by a third party
supplier through a Letter of Access, in which case the name and CAS
number are not mentioned but indicated with the abbreviation LoA.
In this case the supplier will need to ask the third party supplier
to submit the information to Cefas).
Background to the way Cefas generated the lists of products
containing substances with a potential biocidal action
In 2009 Cefas conducted some work to abstract the Netherlands
Black, Purple, Red, Orange, Yellow and undetermined lists from the
document Prioritering risicovolle biociden published (in
Dutch only) by the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial
Planning and the Environment. These lists, along with Annex I and
Annex II from EC No 1451/2007 on Biocides, were searched against
the Cefas database utilising CAS number matching. The lists
generated in 2009 were used to produce lists of products by
supplier that contain substances with a potential biocidal action.
Due to issues of confidentiality concerning Letters of Access,
Cefas did not include the names of the substances involved on the
lists sent to suppliers in the email that was sent out on April
12th.
Which actions by SSM are foreseen in case the biocide forms are
not completed by the 15th of June 2010
In case the biocide forms are not completed, whenever an
operator requests for permit to use and discharge the product of
concern in the Netherlands, the operator will be informed that the
product may contain a substance having a potential biocidal action
for which no information has been received by the supplier during
this exercise. The operator will also be informed that the
permit will not be issued unless the biocide forms have been
completed.
During enforcement actions, suppliers must respond to the
questions raised in the biocide forms otherwise administrative or
criminal penalties will be imposed.