Offshore safety body completes Martin Linge probe report

Following an order to Total to fix faults and deficiencies on the Martin Linge platform being constructed in South Korea, the Norwegian offshore safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has released the full audit report.

It is common practice for the PSA to release the audit report before issuing a notice of order and later an order but this time it was not the case.

In late April, the safety body issued a notice of order without a completed audit report due to, as the PSA explained it, a short period of time available before the licensees decide on the platform’s departure from the South Korean yard.

This notice was later turned into an official order to identify and correct faults and deficiencies noted by the PSA.

Martin Linge audit

As far as the audit is concerned, the safety authority probed Total E&P Norge’s Martin Linge development and directed it towards technical safety, electrical facilities, and maintenance management.

PSA said on Monday that the audit, conducted from March 28 to 30, also looked at Total’s follow-up of technical barriers in the commissioning phase at the Samsung yard in South Korea.

Martin Linge is being developed with a fixed fully integrated production platform supported on a steel jacket, and a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit for oil storage.

The platform is being fabricated at Samsung’s yard in South Korea, which is where the audit took place.

The purpose of the audit was to follow up that Total, in collaboration with the players in the development project, is complying with the assumptions in the plan for development and operation (PDO) and relevant regulations and standards.

Particular attention was given to Total’s follow-up of the conduct and commissioning of the installation work concerning plant, systems, and equipment on the production platform.

PSA also reviewed work on implementing and manifesting the barrier strategy and performance requirements, as well as results from testing and verifying systems and equipment.

Results

Based on the identified breaches of regulations, the PSA earlier gave notice of and issued an order to the company.

As far as non-conformities go, the safety body identified a total of nine irregularities. Namely, they were in connection with maintenance management and preservation, technical conditions of electrical facilities, oil collection system for transformers, and low-voltage switchboards.

The remaining non-conformities were identified in regards to work on and operation of electrical installations, barrier management, verification of performance requirements, follow-up, and management.

PSA also identified improvement points in relation to response time for deluge, design report for active fire-extinguishing systems, test procedures for emergency lighting, and marking of the plant, systems, and equipment.

The PSA told Total to explain how the non-conformities will be dealt with and to provide its assessment of the improvement points.