During the period 24-27 April 2012, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway carried out an audit of electrical systems, instrumented safety systems and fire and explosion protection on the Brage offshore platform.
The audit activity was carried out in the form of a meeting with the operations organisation in Bergen, with subsequent verifications and interviews with offshore personnel.
Brage is an oil field located east of Oseberg in the northern part of the North Sea, at a water depth of 140 metres. The field, which came on stream in 1993, is developed with an integrated production, drilling and living quarters facility resting on the seabed with a steel jacket.
The audit activity is connected with the PSA’s main priority for 2012, barrier management. The objective of the main priority is to ensure that barriers are maintained in a comprehensive and consistent manner so the risk of major accidents is reduced as much as possible.
The objective of the audit activity was to assess how Statoil safeguards planning, implementation and follow-up of the activity in relation to regulatory requirements.
The audit identified nonconformities in relation to the regulations as regards: Implementation of internal company audits of electrical systems; Mechanical protection of lighting fixtures; Practice of area cut-off of gas detectors; Gas detection in the wellhead area; Weakening of fire divisions
The report also contains observations where there is a potential for improvement.
[mappress] Press Release, June 25, 2012; Image: Statoil