Electrical facilities on Skarv FPSO fail to meet offshore safety requirements

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found several non-conformities and improvement points related to electrical facilities at Aker BP’s Skarv FPSO located off Norway. 

Aker BP was founded in 2016 following the merger of Det norske oljeselskap and BP Norge. One of the fields that Aker BP operates is Skarv, which is located in the north of the Norwegian Sea.

The safety authority carried out an audit of the responsible person for the electrical facilities at Aker BP and electrical facilities on the Skarv FPSO between 19 and 27 October 2017.

The audit was conducted in the form of meetings, discussions, document reviews, verifications and functional testing at Aker BP in Stavanger and on the Skarv FPSO.

The objective of the audit was to monitor how Aker BP is complying with regulatory technical, operational and organisational requirements associated with electrical facilities. The audit focused in particular on the responsible person for the electrical facilities at Aker BP and electrical facilities on the Skarv FPSO.

The field 

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

The Skarv field is developed with a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit anchored to the seabed. Subsea wells are tied back to the FPSO from the subsea templates.

Gas transport via an 80 kilometer spur gas line to Åsgard Transport System and then via Gasled to the European market. Shuttle tanker loading of oil for direct transport to the market.

Result 

According to the PSA, the audit identified non-conformities relating to work in and operation of electrical facilities, the technical condition of electrical facilities, emergency power and non-conformity handling.

In addition, improvement points were identified concerning maintenance management, risk identification and resilience measures, and barrier management.