Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway has given BP notification of an order concerning a safety incident in September at the Ula field complex in the North Sea.
An investigation of the hydrocarbon leak from a separator module on the P production platform revealed inadequacies in the fire and explosion protection that do not comply with Norwegian regulatory requirements.
These are related to the integrity of the main substructure and process equipment, neither of which is equipped with passive fire protection. The consequences of a liquid fire are therefore unclear in terms of deformation of the structure and potential spread to other segments.
PSA also identified deficiencies concerning integrity of the explosion partitions in the process module. In its view, BP has not presented measures to sufficiently address these issues.
Under the order, BP must enact immediate and specific physical measures to correct or compensate for insufficient compliance with the requirements related to fire and explosion protection on Ula P by Dec. 31.
11/27/2012
