On 23 and 24 September 2014, with assistance from the Norwegian Maritime Directorate, the PSA carried out an audit of Prosafe Offshore Ltd, in respect of the buoyancy, stability, watertight and weathertight integrity and ballasting of the company's facilities and of Safe Scandinavia in particular. The audit was conducted through meetings at Prosafe's head offices in Aberdeen.

Background and objective

As background to the audit were experiences of a number of stability incidents and flooding on semi-submersible facilities. By means of the audit, the PSA sought to clarify elements in these incidents that may be relevant for Safe Scandinavia. The audit also focused on how the company manages internal non-conformities and maintenance of the prerequisites of Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) for the facility.

Result

The audit revealed non-conformities relating to:

  • Drafting of KG limit curves for damage stability
  • Assessment of scope of damage to individual sections of the hull
  • Indication of valve positions on control panels
  • Righting moment curves

Improvement points were identified for a number of conditions, including in relation to documentation and knowledge of how different incidents affect stability and the functional capability of components associated with the hull's integrity and buoyancy. An improvement point was also identified in respect of identifying and handling internal non-conformities.

Non-conformity:

Entails that a condition is assessed as not complying with a regulatory requirement.

Improvement point:

Entails that we have identified a deficiency or weakness, without there being sufficient grounds for determining a breach of regulatory requirements.