Past Regulation Experiences vs. Contemporary Challenges in Resource-Based Industries and Technologies?

Regulation on waterfalls, water resources and hydro-electric power production has evolved over 100 years to reduce negative externalities and secure future generation's control of these important resources. The heritage of this tradition was also considered when establishing the regulations on petroleum exploration over five decades later. Therefore, in the petroleum offshore industry a holistic regulatory system was established concerning ownership, control and management of development and comprehensive safety regulations. This framework has continuously developed based upon experiences from industry developments and accidents. In contrast, today industries like fish farming and wind farms evolve and expand without a holistic, subsequent control, security and safety regulatory schema. Lack of proper regulation has given us security and safety challenges as, lack of control, loss of jurisdiction, and negative externalities on workforce and environment. How did our predecessors regulate resource-based industries, and to what extent have we achieved similar regulatory control over emerging industries today? What insights do past regulatory experiences offer for addressing today's challenges? How do global threats to power supply and infrastructure, evolving security concerns, and digitalization-related vulnerabilities impact regulatory frameworks? This paper is inspired by four expert seminars that examined these issues. It introduces a timeline of key regulatory developments, explores the regulatory development process, and discusses potential barriers to effective regulation. Given that regulatory compliance is enforced through auditing and sanctions, this paper also examines the evolution of regulation and governmental supervision, particularly the role of internal control auditing. Additionally, it highlights the growing demand for advancements in auditing methodologies. To navigate an increasingly complex future, we propose a research program focused on safety and security regulation for resource-based industries. This initiative aims to serve as a foundational knowledge base for a long-awaited White Paper on regulation and governmental supervision.

Keywords: Regulation, Safety, Security, Critical infrastructure, Energy.