On June 21, 2016, at the University of Milan-Bicocca, held a conference entitled ‘CRIET meets 2016: Offshore security agreements for a national, sustainable oil & gas strategy’.

The political, social and economic situation at national and international level influences the mining energy sector with significant implications for the current and future scenario of the oil & gas sector. Recently, the G7 summit officially stated that in the face of growing uncertainties stemming from the current level of energy prices, we will struggle to play a leading role in facilitating investement in energy and particularly in quality infrastructures and in upstream development, all of which are necessary to mitigate the risks for future global economic growth.

This further confirms the objectives of the 2013 energy strategy that promoted an energy mix in the push for a continuous and sustainable national production of fossil fuels. It is therefore vital to continue to implement appropriate actions which promote the sustainability of E&P activities at a national level. These activities must involve all stakeholders and promote dialogue and transparency in the region, finding ways of providing the correct information and a deepening of knowledge of the highly scientific issues that generate awareness and value in the industry.
For the last two years, the ‘General Directorate for the Safety of Mining and Energy Activities of the Ministry of Economic Development’ (following the adoption of the ‘Offshore Directive’ – 30/2013/2015) has promoted a detailed programme along with research organizations, universities and institutions, for the improvement of  the security of operations and the sustainability of oil & gas activities. The event represents a coming together of mutual interested parties and an opportunity to verify the success of ongoing research projects.

In particular, there are four discussion roundtables:

• Workgroup 1. ‘Security Indicator’; to identify operational proposals to converge the results of agreements within a multi-parameter indicator;
• Workgroup 2. ‘Technology, Innovation and Monitoring’; to identify ways of improving monitoring systems;
• Workgroup 3. ‘Best Practices and Regulations’; to analyze natural and induced risks in present and future legislation;
• Workgroup 4. ‘Dialogue and Transparency’; to discuss the external and internal communication plan for agreements and their relative dissemination methods.