• The audit was conducted from 18 May to 10 June 2022.
  • Notification of the order was made on 13 July and the order was issued on 22 August 2022.

Objective

The objective of the activity was to monitor the company's management of logistics including materials handling and the use and maintenance of lifting equipment on board Johan Sverdrup.

The audit included verification of whether planning and execution of operations in materials handling complied with the requirements, and paid particular attention to lifting operations in the drilling area. The reason for this is the increasing number of incidents associated with lifting operations in drilling areas. The operator's responsibility and preparations for operation of the Johan Sverdrup P2 processing facility were also followed up in the audit, by inspecting changes and new equipment on the riser platform (RP), and installation, completion and start-up of the new P2 facility.

The audit also followed up and verified that previously detected non-conformities in logistics (materials handling) had been addressed in accordance with the feedback to our previous observations.

Result

Challenges have previously been identified in respect of technical and operational conditions related to risks in offshore crane operation. This included the management and exercise of roles and responsibilities in logistics and use of the cranes. Equinor has carried out extensive and thorough work to rectify these issues, and no new observations were made during this audit. Nor were any new observations made in relation to materials handling, or safe use and maintenance of lifting equipment handled by Equinor's logistics department on board.

Concerning the drilling platform (DP), non-conformities had previously been identified in connection with design and solutions for materials handling. This applied, among other things, to pipe handling from the pipe deck to the drill floor, as well as lifting operations on the drill floor where personnel had to perform work operations in a red zone or in cordoned-off areas, near or under suspended loads. The audit showed that several of the conditions had still not been corrected in accordance with the regulations.

During the audit, we identified non-conformities relating to:

  • Design of materials handling in the drilling area
  • Condition monitoring of lifting equipment on the DP platform

We also identified two factors that we have chosen to categorise as improvement points. These concerned:

  • Operational conditions on the DP platform
  • TETRA radio communications

Order

We have identified serious breaches of the regulations and have issued Equinor with the following order:

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, Equinor is ordered to:

  1. Perform a comprehensive and systematic survey of materials handling in order to reduce exposure of personnel and manual work on the drill floor and pipe deck of Johan Sverdrup DP, pertaining to non-conformity 5.1.1, with reference to the Management Regulations, section 18 concerning working environment analysis, para 1; the Activities Regulations, section 33 concerning the organisation of work; the Facilities Regulations, section 10 concerning installations, systems and equipment, para 1 (a) and (b).
  2. Prepare a binding, time-delimited schedule for rectifying non-conformities associated with equipment for materials handling and remote operation in the drilling area on Johan Sverdrup DP, pertaining to non-conformity 5.1.1. The schedule shall also describe compensating measures to be implemented until the non-conformity has been rectified. With reference to the Management Regulations, section 22 concerning the handling of nonconformities, paras 2 and 3; the Facilities Regulations, section 10 concerning installations, systems and equipment, para 1 (a) and (b); the Facilities Regulations, section 69 concerning lifting appliances and lifting gear, para 3; the Activities Regulations, section 89 concerning the remote operation of pipes and work strings.

The deadline for complying with Part 1 of the order is 2 November 2022.

The deadline for complying with Part 2 of the order is 8 December 2022.

We are to be notified when each of the two parts of the order has been complied with.