Valemon’s cranes, emergency preparedness probed

The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway has carried out an audit of emergency preparedness, cranes and lifting at Valemon field, located in the North Sea.

Statoil is the operator of the Valemon field, which is in the northern North Sea, west of the Kvitebjørn field. The field has been developed using a fixed production facility.

Condensate from the field will be transported to Mongstad via Kvitebjørn, while the gas will be piped to Heimdal for onward transport to the UK or the European mainland.

According to the PSA, once drilling of the well is complete, the plan is for the Valemon facility to be remote-controlled from onshore, a first on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Production at Valemon began on January 3, 2015.

The PSA has carried out an audit of Statoil’s management of the emergency preparedness, cranes and lifting domains at Valemon. The audit was carried out between 17 and 20 November 2014 on board the Valemon facility and on the West Elara jack-up drilling facility, which is drilling wells in the field. Prior to this, a start-up meeting was held at Statoil’s premises on November 10, 2014.

Non-conformities & improvement points

The audit revealed non-conformities relating to: Risk and emergency preparedness management; Module training for response teams; Training in the use of lifting facilities; Governing documents for lifting facilities and equipment; Documentation for lifting facilities and equipment; Materials handling plan; Control of temporary lifting arrangements; Control of wire ropes for offshore cranes; Control of scaffolding; Bumpers and protective structures on the provisioning deck.

Improvement points were identified in connection with: Scaffolding in evacuation routes; Equipment cabinet for search and rescue teams; “Tetra” communications system for crane operations.

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