Offshore safety body spots irregularities on Askepott rig

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found several irregularities during an audit of the Askepott jack-up rig offshore Norway. 

The PSA said on Monday that the audit, conducted from November 12 to 15, 2018, looked at KCA Deutag’s management of emergency preparedness and the working environment at the Askepott rig.

The safety watchdog added that it focused on various themes connected with robustness and employee participation. There was also a focus on barriers being safeguarded to reduce the risks of unintended operational incidents and work-related illness as much as possible.

The audit also followed up findings from the previous AoC audit. Askepott received its AoC on November 28, 2017, and has been in operation since February 2018.

Within emergency preparedness, one non-conformity was identified relating to a systematic approach to the organization and follow-up of emergency preparedness training on board, as well as one improvement point relating to descriptions of emergency preparedness tasks and responsibilities.

Within the working environment domain, the PSA found six non-conformities regarding chemical working environment, noise exposure harmful to hearing, ergonomic factors, psychosocial factors, joint and local working environment committee as well as non-conformity handling.

The PSA told KCA Deutag to report on how the non-conformities and improvement point would be addressed by February 18, 2019.

This was the second audit made by the PSA in 2018. The first one was conducted in March 2018, and it looked at the management of logistics and drilling operations both at Askepott drilling rig and the Oseberg H platform in the North Sea.