While conducting an audit of the Valemon platform in the North Sea, the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority found shortcomings in the platform’s security.
The audit of the Statoil-operated Valemon platform was conducted from October 26 to November 5, 2015, and included checks of barrier management, technical safety and electrical installations.
PSA Norway identified four non-conformities related to electrical installations, heating cables, fire areas and fire divisions.
Furthermore, Statoil was instructed to pay additional attention to explosion overpressure, ignition source control, isolation plan, documentation and fire water supply.
The safety authority said that Statoil has been given a deadline of February 1, 2016 to report on how the non-conformities and improvement points will be dealt with.
The Valemon gas and condensate field, located in the North Sea, 160 km west of Bergen, Norway, was brought on stream by Statoil and partners on January 3, 2015.
It is estimated that recoverable reserves from the field are at 192 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Statoil said this would be their first platform remotely controlled from shore, turning into a “normally unmanned platform” when the drilling on the field is completed in 2017.
Condensate from Valemon will be piped to Kvitebjørn for processing, and from there to Mongstad, whereas the gas will be sent to Heimdal for processing, and then transported to the market.
Statoil Petroleum A/S is the operator of the field with a 53.77% stake. Other stakeholders are Petoro AS with 30%, Centrica Resources 13%, while A/S Norske Shell has a 3.23% stake.
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