More serious breaches found during Goliat FPSO audit

Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has found further serious breaches of regulations on the Goliat FPSO and issued another notice of order to Eni, following an audit report of electrical facilities. 

To remind, the PSA conducted an audit between September 19-28, to review electrical safety and the person in charge of the electrical facilities on board the Goliat FPSO, located in the Barents Sea.

After the audit was complete, Eni was given a notice of order to fix faults and deficiencies on the FPSO before resuming production.

On October 6, Eni was ordered to complete the systematic survey of potential ignition sources related to electrical motors with Ex construction, and to implement the necessary measures to reduce the threat of ignition as far as possible before production resumed.

In the notice of order, PSA said that the total fault rate for the relevant equipment after the inspection-related repair was 38 percent, with 3.5 percent of these being serious faults in Eni’s own assessment. Also, only 50 percent of the Ex motors were investigated up to that point, meaning that the condition of remaining Ex motors was unclear.

The PSA said on Monday that, now that the report has been completed, further serious breaches of the regulations were noted.

Namely, the safety authority noted non-conformities relating to follow-up and handling of nonconformities, electrical safety and the person responsible for the electrical facilities management, and risk assessment of conditions related to ignition source control.

Furthermore, improvement points were identified in regards to reporting of situations of hazards and accidents, planning and setting of priorities, heating-cable installation, and a safety supervisor.

Notice of order

On the basis of the nonconformities identified, the PSA has given Eni a notice order stating that Eni must review the company’s system for following up identified non-conformities so that the nonconformities are corrected, their causes clarified, and corrective measures initiated to prevent the nonconformities from reoccurring. The effect of the measures must be evaluated.

The company needs to review all identified non-conformities related to ignition source control as well as review non-conformities closed without adequate correction to ensure necessary handling of the non-conformities and adequate correction.

In a separate part of the notice of order, the PSA added that Eni must conduct a review of the management system for the electrical discipline area and implement the measures necessary to ensure that roles and responsibilities are defined and understood and necessary procedures, guidelines, and instructions drawn up and are complied with and that these are adapted to the extent necessary to site-specific conditions on board.

Also, existing training programs need to be evaluated and measures implemented to ensure that relevant training modules are tailored to and implemented for each position on board.

To clarify, an order is an administrative decision and a strongly preventive instrument which is legally binding on the recipient, in this case, Eni. Before the PSA issues an order, it usually sends a notice of order to the affected companies which is neither an instrument nor a notice of sanctions.

PSA concluded by stating that a scheduled plan must be presented by December 11 which would ensure the company complied with this order. The deadline for complying with the order is March 1, 2018.