Norwegian offshore safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), found several improvement points during the audit of BP Norge’s Tambar platform, offshore Norway.
PSA conducted an audit from April 26-28, following BP’s application for operating life extension for Tambar until January 1, 2022. The audit was aimed at assessing BP’s compliance with the regulatory requirements concerning emergency preparedness on its wellhead platform.
No non-conformities were found during the audit but several improvement points were identified. Improvement points are related to physical fitness of helideck personnel, rescue of injured persons from cranes, change in the use of emergency preparedness vessel and training of emergency preparedness staff.
PSA informed BP that it must respond by June 20 concerning how the improvement points will be addressed.
The Tambar oil field is operated by BP. The field is located in the North Sea, around 16 kilometres southeast of the Ula field. The field has been developed using a remotely controlled wellhead platform without processing equipment. It is an unmanned platform but can still accommodate 12 people.
In 2007, an oil discovery was made in the Tambar East reservoir (block 2/1 – prod. licence 300) which has since been in production.