PSA orders improvement in North Sea Sverdrup lifting procedures
Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – Equinor must act following a lifting incident last May onboard the Johan Sverdrup riser platform in the Norwegian North Sea.
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) identified serious breaches of regulations following its investigation of the incident, which occurred while part of a gangway was being lifted during removal of a chemical tote tank storage frame from the weather deck.
Equinor’s logistics department work team, which comprised two slingers, a signaller and a crane operator, had attached the lifting chains to the gangway structure and were detaching it from the frame by releasing the first of two ratchet straps.
The structure was then supported by the crane hook, which the chains were hung from, in addition to the second strap.
When the first strap was released, the structure started to shift. One of the slingers, who moved at the same time into the lift zone, was crushed in the stomach area between the structure and the frame, suffering internal injuries.
Under slightly different circumstances, the PSA added, the incident could have caused a fatality.
The PSA has ordered Equinor to identify and implement measures which ensure that future lifting operations at the field receive safety clearance before being executed; and to enact measures so that the responsibility and authority of those planning and executing lifting operations are always unambiguously defined and coordinated.
Deadline for compliance is Jan. 10, 2022.
10/01/2021
