BP’s Skarv FPSO under safety authority spotlight

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has carried out an audit of BP Norge’s OHAS management on the Skarv floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, offshore Norway.

PSA said on Friday that the audit on the Skarv FPSO was conducted from April 12 to April 15.

The agency’s goal was to verify that BP’s management of the Occupational Health & Safety (OHAS) system at Skarv ensures that employees are not exposed to working environment risk beyond levels specified in the regulations and that the arrangements for employee participation are in compliance with the regulatory requirements.

The PSA found one non-conformity and two improvement points during the audit. The identified non-conformity is in connection with the training of the safety delegates while the improvement points are linked to the management of working environment risk and the use of HSE committees.

The safety body informed BP Norge that the deadline to report on how the non-conformity and improvement points will be dealt with is September 1.

The Skarv field is located in the Norwegian Sea, approx. 210 km off the coast of Sandnessjøen, in 350-450 m water depth. The field came on stream in December 2012 and has an expected field life of 25 years.

The field development includes the Skarv FPSO purpose-built for harsh waters, five subsea drilling templates, and an 80-kilometre 26-inch gas export pipeline connected to the Gassled transportation system, allowing export to markets in Europe.