Offshore safety body takes closer look at Jotun A and Balder

The Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found a number of irregularities during audits of Point Resources’ Jotun A and Balder facilities located off Norway. 

The PSA said on Thursday that the Jotun A audit was focused on risk, barrier, and maintenance management while the Balder audit looked at the management of emergency preparedness.

The safety body added that the Jotun A audit was conducted from February 26 to March 22 and that the Balder audit was done from April 9 to April 20.

Audit of Jotun A

The PSA carried out an audit of how Point Resources was safeguarding and ensuring compliance with requirements relating to major accident risk, including the company’s processes for risk, barrier and maintenance management.

The audit showed that Point Resources needed to focus attention on the development, implementation and follow-up of the company’s processes relating to major accidents and the relationship between risk, barrier and maintenance management.

In the audit, the PSA identified non-conformities relating to barrier management, decision support, risk analyses, maintenance and the management of maintenance, classification, the maintenance programme, tagging, maintenance of Ex equipment, and follow-up of maintenance effectiveness.

The safety watchdog also identified improvement points concerning documentation of the impact of automatic water deluge in the event of confirmed gas detection, penetrations in firewalls, the emergency shutdown system, and planning and prioritization.

The agency told Point Resources to report by August 15, 2018, on how the non-conformities would be addressed, and of its assessment of the improvement points found.

As for the Jotun field, it is in the central North Sea, 25 kilometers north of Balder. Jotun was proved in 1994 and the plan for development and operation was approved in 1997. Production began in 1999. The field has been developed using the Jotun A FPSO, and a wellhead facility named Jotun B.

Balder audit

The PSA said that the objective of the audit was to review and evaluate the management’s administration of emergency preparedness on the Balder facility, including analyses, manning, competence, and consistency of emergency preparedness tasks, including training and drills.

The safety body monitored the processes that Point Resources established to ensure that prerequisites, limitations, and recommendations in the emergency preparedness analysis were addressed and that they were communicated out to the emergency preparedness organization.

The PSA also wanted to monitor that a system for continuous improvement had been implemented, how multipartite collaboration is provided for on Balder, and how the company was working systematically to prevent major accidents.

The audit identified non-conformities which included inadequate MOB preparedness, deficient performance of exercises and training, deficient marking of escape routes, and signage in outdoor areas, and inadequate manning of the first aid team.

The improvement points concerned obstacles in evacuation routes and deficient performance of exercises and training.

The PSA asked Point Resources to report by June 27 on how the non-conformities would be addressed. The agency also asked for feedback with an assessment of the improvement points observed.

Balder is a field in the central part of the North Sea. It was discovered in 1967, and the initial plan for development and operation was approved in 1996. Production started in 1999. The field has been developed with subsea wells tied-back to the Balder FPSO.