Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has identified serious breaches of regulations in its investigation of an incident involving an oil spill on the Gullfaks C platform last April.
Operator Equinor must respond with an action place by Sept. 30.
At the time that the spill occurred, production from the Tordis subsea installation was starting up following a planned four-day shutdown. Equinor estimated that 17.5 cu m (618 cu ft) of oil escaped, leading to a 3,500 x 500-m (11,483 x 1,640-ft) slick forming on the north side of the platform.
The leak was caused by the water outlet from the Tordis inlet separator being opened too early, and this, exacerbated by emulsion problems, led to oil to flowing out with the water, through the water treatment plant and then onto the sea.
Underlying causes included impairments to level and oil-in-water meters; inadequate risk assessment of equipment impairments and the impact of corrosion inhibitors on produced-water quality during start-up; deficiencies in the system and operating documentation; and too many tasks for the control room operators to deal with during start-up.
The investigation revealed non-conformities related to overriding of the process safety system; deficiencies in system and operating documentation; and insufficient risk assessment when starting up Tordis production.
Equinor must now review its internal requirements and established routines on Gullfaks C to ensure that in the future overriding of safety systems is conducted in accordance with regulatory demands.
08/26/2021
