Norway’s offshore safety authority, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has identified irregularities and improvement points during a recent audit aboard the Borgland Dolphin drilling rig.
The PSA was conducting the audit of the management of emergency preparedness and the working environment.
The industry safety watchdog said that the objective of the audit was to verify how Dolphin, in conjunction with the operator Wintershall, is working systematically on the management of emergency preparedness and the working environment.
The audit, conducted March 30-April 4, looked at how the facility’s emergency preparedness organization, equipment, and systems are functioning.
Concerning the working environment, the objective was to evaluate Dolphin and Wintershall’s systems and practices for the identification and follow-up of potentially at-risk groups on board, including both own and 3rd-party employees.
PSA said the audit also reviewed the arrangements for employee participation and the safety service on board the Borgland Dolphin.
Need for improvement
PSA stated that the audit found four non-conformities and five improvement points.
The organization said that the non-conformities concern coordination of information for 3rd-party OHSs, verification of measures, securing of loose equipment in normal operations and fire stations.
Improvement points concern working environment competence offshore, illumination of means of evacuation, evacuation of injured persons from pontoons, system for ensuring follow-up of training and drilling of the emergency preparedness organization, and emergency preparedness analysis.
PSA gave Wintershall and Dolphin a deadline of August 20 to report on how the non-conformities will be dealt with and how the improvement points will be addressed.
The Borgland Dolphin is a 1977-built semi-submersible drilling rig. The Aker H-3 rig underwent an extensive upgrade in 1999 and received the Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) in September 2004.