Offshore safety body spots irregularities during Gudrun audit

Norwegian offshore safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found irregularities during an audit of Equinor’s Gudrun field offshore Norway. 

The Gudrun field is located in the North Sea, west of Stavanger, around 50 kilometers north of the Sleipner field. The field came on stream in April 2014, with Equinor as the operator.

The offshore safety body said on Wednesday that the audit was conducted from June 5 to 8, 2018.

The audit aimed to verify that Equinor’s management and follow-up of technical, organizational and operational barriers complied with the company’s and the authorities’ requirements to reduce the probability of failures.

The PSA identified regulatory non-conformities in respect of methods for establishing design loads for fires and of deficient non-conformity handling.

The watchdog also identified improvement points linked to barrier management, passive fire protection, function testing of facilities for fire-fighting, inspection programme for pipe penetrations in firewalls, equipment labeling, damage to cables, and information on following up hazard and accident situations.

The PSA told Equinor to report on how the non-conformities would be addressed by September 21, 2018. Also, the PSA requested the company’s assessment of the improvement points observed.