Offshore safety body takes closer look at Askepott and Oseberg H

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found several non-conformities and improvement points during an audit of the Askepott rig and Oseberg H platform off Norway.

The PSA said on Monday that it conducted an audit from March 13 to 15 of the management of logistics and drilling operations at the Askepott drilling rig and Oseberg H platform located in the North Sea.

According to the safety body, the audit was focused on both the drilling contractor KCA Deutag Drilling Norge (KCAD) and the operator Statoil.

The objective of the audit was to investigate KCAD’s management of the operations, including materials handling, verifying that planning and execution of lifting operations complied with requirements, and following up the maintenance of lifting equipment, so that this contributes to reducing the likelihood of accidents and injuries related to materials handling.

The audit also verified how Statoil was exercising its supervisory responsibilities towards KCAD and how the companies, together with the well service company on board Askepott, met regulatory requirements for planning, risk assessment, and performance of drilling and well operations.

The PSA added that it found three regulatory non-conformities during the audit, namely, deficient follow-up and rectification of previous observations, arrangement of work areas, and safe use of lifting equipment.

The improvement points concerned cuttings handling, technical conditions, operational conditions for lifting operations and well control. It is worth noting that the non-conformities and improvement points were found at both Askepott and Oseberg H.

The PSA told KCAD and Statoil to report on how the non-conformities would be addressed, and for an assessment of the improvement points observed by May 14, at the latest.

The companies were also asked to present a status and plan for following up and correcting previous observations in a meeting with the PSA on June 19.

To remind, Statoil received consent from the PSA to put the Oseberg H platform offshore Norway into commission last week.

As for the Askepott rig, the safety watchdog gave Statoil the consent to use the Askepott jack-up rig for drilling production wells at Vestflanken 2 in December 2017. The rig began drilling on February 25, through the unmanned Oseberg H.