Eni given notice of order following Goliat audit

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA), has given a notice of order to Eni Norge regarding risk and barrier management at the Goliat field offshore Norway. 

The PSA said on Tuesday that the notice of order was given to Eni following an audit of the company’s follow-up and management of electrical facilities on Goliat.

Conducted from October 15-19, the audit aimed to follow up how Eni is complying with technical, operational, and organizational regulatory requirements for electrical facilities on the Goliat floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Barents Sea.

It was a follow-up to an earlier audit of Eni covering electrical safety and responsibility for electrical facilities on Goliat, which led to a report on in late 2017, and an associated order.

Audit results

The PSA said that the orders issued after earlier audits of the Goliat FPSO had an effect. Eni’s work on following up Ex-motors improved and the company pursued further improvements related to training and procedures for electrical discipline.

The safety watchdog added that there were challenges with the way the company worked to take overall care of issues identified earlier.

Faults and deficiencies are still be uncovered which, combined with the quantity of outstanding maintenance, presents challenges related to handling individual and overall risks on the FPSO.

Also, during the audit, the company could not explain how far the combined consequences of the non-conformities influenced the overall risk picture onboard.

In the opinion of the PSA, the amount of outstanding work related to the electrical and instrumentation disciplines is relatively large. Also, technical faults and deficiencies in key barrier elements, and in the follow-up of these in the SAP maintenance management system, were identified by the audit.

“The PSA’s observations from this audit show that faults and deficiencies still exist which, until they are corrected, represent a source of uncertainty which makes a negative contribution to the risk picture for the Goliat FPSO,” the safety body said.

Following the audit, the PSA held a meeting with Eni on November 14 where the company presented aspects related to its management of major accident risk and measures already initiated to correct the non-conformity related to fire dampers.

The audit identified a total of 11 non-conformities regarding fire dampers, emergency shutdown system, emergency power – uninterruptible power supply, emergency lighting, safety systems, monitoring and control, electrical installations, training, organisation and operating procedures, maintenance of safety critical equipment and functions, evacuation from rooms containing high-voltage installations, handling non-conformities, and risk and barrier management.

An improvement point was also identified related to the availability of power in the emergency sick bay.

Notice of order

The PSA’s audit showed improvements in a number of areas on the Goliat FPSO compared with earlier conditions. Nevertheless, the PSA identified deficiencies in key elements related to managing risk and barriers.

On that basis, Eni was given a notice of order. The company was told to draw up a realistic and binding plan for completing outstanding safety-critical work. That also includes completing the status of the technical condition of safety-critical barriers.

The deadline for compliance with the order is March 1, 2019. The PSA must be informed when the order has been carried out.

Eni was also asked to explain to the PSA how the other nonconformities will be dealt with by January 15, 2019. The PSA also requested the company’s assessment of the improvement point which was observed.

Once a response has been received from Eni, the PSA will take the initiative to hold a meeting with the company to review and verify the various responses. The meeting will take place by February 20, 2019, at the latest.