Norway’s safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found one improvement point during an audit of Statoil’s planning of Johan Castberg FPSO.
The PSA said on Tuesday that the audit was carried out on October 23, 2017.
According to the safety body, the audit covered the design of the facility with a view to cold-climate operations and was restricted to materials handling, the working environment, and technical safety.
The objective of the audit was to assess whether Statoil is planning Johan Castberg FPSO in compliance with the requirements in HSE regulations for the petroleum activities and balancing different safety and working environment concerns.
A further objective was to obtain information and assessments from Statoil for use in the PSA’s processing of the application for approval of the plan for development and operation (PDO) for Johan Castberg.
The PSA found no non-conformities during the audit, but it did identify one improvement point linked to the assessment of and technical solutions for the removal of snow and ice.
To be deployed at the Johan Castberg field development in the Barents Sea, about 240 kilometers from Hammerfest, Norway, the FPSO will have a hull approximately 55m wide and 295m long. It will be self-contained for harsh-environment operation, with living quarters accommodating up to 140 personnel.
Johan Castberg will be the northernmost facility on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and must be designed to operate safely in the intended location.
It is worth mentioning that Statoil applied for approval of the plan for development and operation (PDO) for Johan Castberg on December 12, 2017 .
The field development concept includes an FPSO and a subsea development with a total of 30 wells, ten subsea templates, and two satellite structures. According to Statoil, this is the biggest subsea field under development in the world today.
Also, Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine officially secured the contract to build the hull for the Johan Castberg FPSO.