The PSA carried put an audit of operations, maintenance and pressure safety focused on Statoil's and Gassco's land organisations and the Heimdal Main Platform (HMP) and Heimdal Riser Platform (HRP). The audit was conducted between 22 and 29 September 2016.

Objective

Our objective was to monitor the management of operations, maintenance, safety-critical equipment and pressure-safety systems in particular on HRP and HMP, in relation to the company's own and the authorities' requirements. The allocation of responsibilities and tasks between Gassco as the operator and Statoil as the technical service provider catering for the functioning of the facility was key to the audit.

Result

The audit identified seven non-conformities in relation to the petroleum regulations. The non-conformities concern the management of activities on HMP and HRP, barrier management, fire protection within the plant, the independence of the process safety systems, governing documents, Gassco's supervisory responsibilities and alarm management in the control room at Bygnes.

We also detected three areas with potential for improvement. These areas are alarm management in the control room at Heimdal, the company's (Statoil's) own follow-up, and deficiencies in the system for equipment labelling and defective labelling in the plant.

Based on the findings made during the audit, we have now given Statoil four order:

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, with reference to the Activities Regulations, section 25 concerning the use of facilities, second para., the Management Regulations, section 14 concerning manning and competence, first para., the Activities Regulations, section 45 concerning maintenance, with reference to chapter 5.1.1 of the report, we order Statoil to:

  • Demonstrate through production of short- and long-term plans for operation and maintenance that sufficient personnel will manage operational and maintenance tasks on the facilities and that the maintenance programme and its execution are adapted to the age and condition of the facilities and equipment.

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, with reference to the Management Regulations, section 5 concerning barriers, paras four, five and six, with reference to chapter 5.1.2 of the report and the Facilities Regulations, section 82, item 2, with reference to the regulations concerning explosion- and fire-protection of facilities in the petroleum activity of 7 February 1992, section 19 concerning general requirements for passive fire protection, and the regulations for production and auxiliary systems for production facilities of 3 April 1978, chapters 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 concerning the requirement for passive fire safety, with reference to chapter 5.1.3 of the report, we order Statoil to:

  • Ensure that barriers which have been weakened or are non-functional are identified, evaluate the combination of weakened barriers, and ensure that requisite compensatory measures are implemented and that a plan is in place to improve barriers that are non-functional or weak.

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, with reference to the Facilities Regulations, section 82, item 2, with reference to the regulations concerning safety and communications systems for facilities in the petroleum activity of 7 February 1992, section 19 concerning process-safety systems, with reference to chap. 5.1.4 of the report, we order Statoil to:

  • Demonstrate that the gas-transport system connected to the Vesterled pipeline satisfies the regulatory requirements for two independent process-safety systems.

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, with reference to the Activities Regulations, section 20 concerning the start-up and operation of facilities, second para., item b, with reference to chap. 5.1.5 of the report, we order Statoil to:

  • Update necessary governing documentation as referred to in chap. 5.1.5.

What happens next?

A binding, time-delimited schedule is to be prepared to comply with the above orders. The schedule is to be presented to the PSA by 27 January 2017.

Explanation of the terms "order" and "notification of order"
An order is an administrative decision made pursuant to the regulations. Before we issue an order, we generally send a "notification of order" to the affected companies.

A notification of order is neither an instrument nor a notice of sanctions, but a step in the PSA's case processing in which we request the party to assess the factual basis. The notification is only the first step before an administrative decision is made.

An order is a strongly preventive instrument which is legally binding on the recipient.