Norwegian safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found two improvement points during an audit of ConocoPhillips’ risk assessments for waves hitting decks on Ekofisk B, offshore Norway.
The agency said on Monday that the detected improvement points were related to deficient analyses and verification of analyses. No non-conformities were detected during this audit.
Namely, the subsidence of the Ekofisk and Eldfisk fields are increasing the risk of waves hitting the decks on the facilities and imposing large loads on the structures. This problem has been the focus of PSA’s attention during audits for years and has become even more important following last winter’s incident with fatal consequences on the COSLInnovator drilling rig.
To remind, after the rig was struck by a wave, on December 30, 2015, one person was killed and four injured, while the rig itself suffered extensive damage to part of its living quarters. At the time of the accident, the COSLInnovator, built in 2011 and owned by COSL Drilling, was working for the Norwegian oil company Statoil on the Troll field in the North Sea.
The safety authority added on Monday that the audit of ConocoPhillips, conducted on November 7 and 8, 2016, at the company’s Tananger premises, was meant to see how the company was addressing the challenge of Ekofisk and Eldfisk subsidence.
ConocoPhillips was told to respond by January 20, 2017, concerning how these improvement points will be assessed.
The Greater Ekofisk Area, located approximately 200 miles (300 km) offshore Stavanger, is comprised of four producing fields: Ekofisk, Eldfisk, Embla, and Tor.
Offshore Energy Today Staff