The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), Norway’s offshore safety watchdog, has published results of Statoil’s Johan Catsberg FPSO audit conducted last month. Result, no nonconformities found, but for one improvement point.
PSA said the audit was done to investigate whether the maritime standards that Statoil opted to apply comply with the regulatory requirement to use recognized norms. Petroleum regulations allow the use of standards other than NORSOK for the design engineering of load-bearing structures.
International (ISO/IEC) and European standards (CEN/CENELEC) define safe and economical design and processes and are developed in cooperation with Norwegian companies and experts. However, Norwegian safety framework and climate conditions require own standards, or additions and supplements to International Standards and European Standards which are all incorporated within NORSOK.
PSA stated it found no non-conformities during the audit but found an improvement point in connection with Statoil’s function specification.
Statoil is required to respond by May 28 concerning how the improvement point will be assessed.
The Statoil-operated Johan Castberg field is located about 240 kilometers north-west of Hammerfest, off Norway. In March 2015, Statoil decided to spend more time on the project postponing the decision to continue the so-called DG2 until the second half of 2016, with expectations for an investment decision in 2017. The concept study for the FPSO was awarded to Aker Solutions earlier this year .