Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has given notice of an order to Total E&P Norge, following an audit of the Martin Linge project in the North Sea.
Martin Linge is an oil and gas field in the northern part of the sector, 42 km (26 mi) west of Oseberg. It is due to come onstream in 2018 - Total operates, in partnership with Petoro and Statoil.
The topsides for a fully integrated fixed production platform is under construction at the Samsung yard inSouth Korea. This will be linked to a floating storage and offloading unit.
PSA conducted an audit of the project in late March focused on technical safety, electrical equipment, maintenance management, and Total’s own follow-up of technical barriers during the commissioning phase at the Samsung yard.
The audit brought to light serious deficiencies in various areas, PSA says. Preservation of equipment and systems, both indoors and outdoors, were said to be inadequate, with equipment and systems exposed to large quantities of dust, water, particles, and other impurities from ongoing construction and commissioning activities.
During the completion phase this will necessitate resource-intensive and time-consuming cleaning, PSA said, and, potentially the need to replace weakened or damaged equipment and components.
It could also seriously impact planning and implementing of commissioning and start-up work offshore.
PSA identified further faults and deficiencies in the professional execution of electrical installations.
As time is approaching for the completed structure to depart South Korea, PSA has issued the notice prior to finalizing its audit report. This requires Total to identify and correct as far as possible faults and deficiencies, and to assess applicable plans, prioritization and use of resources to ensure acceptable commissioning before installation on the field.
Total must in addition initiate measures that ensure compliance with its procedures for preservation of systems and equipment that take account of the site-specific conditions.
Deadline for complying with the order is May 29.
05/01/2017
