Posted By CJP Health and safety legislation is tied up with labour law and is separate from environmental protection. Both are enforced by a number of governmental departments, but most importantly by the National Oil Company (NOC) who have a Joint Venture or some other contractual / license agreement with foreign oil and gas companies. Although high level legislation is in place, it is very general with few detailed regulations (if viewed in a UK context) and certainly the approach to enforcement is different. Most western companies try to adopt the standards they would apply elsewhere in the world and enforcement is internal. In my humble opinion, most of the HSE issues arise with the contractor workforce (seismic, drilling, construction). It is hard for the oil and gas companies to select contractors on the basis of HSE competence as there is not a great range of local companies and foreign companies need time and effort to get registered and established. The contractor workforce always have to be trained and coached on the HSE standards the oil company want to apply. This takes time and is very challenging. Don’t expect them to transfer good practice from one operator to another! As for general advice - living and working in Tripoli is very different to working a rotation in the desert. Most companies have a lot of introductory information for new recruits - make sure you get a thorough induction. The most dangerous thing in my experience was the driving in Tripoli. Expat communities tend to live together and are self-supportive. When I left 18 months ago, a comprehensive assessment of the levels of petty crime showed Tripoli to be safe compared with European big cities. The same applies when working in Libya as other countries - you are their guest, respect their traditions and business methods and don’t be quick to judge against your standards at home.