Investigation finds safety flaws on Statoil’s Grane platform

Norway’s offshore safety agency, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found seven non-conformities and four improvement points during a safety audit of Statoil’s Grane platform, offshore Norway. 

Grane is an oilfield in the North Sea operated by Statoil, some 185 kilometers west of Haugesund. The field has been developed using an integrated production, drilling, and accommodation platform with a fixed steel jacket.

The production on the field began in 2003 with the oil being piped to the Sture terminal for onward transport by tanker.

PSA said on Tuesday that the audit of electrical installations and technical safety at Grane was conducted from February 6-10, 2017.

The safety body said that the aim of the audit was to monitor how Statoil is meeting its regulatory obligations in these areas.

The identified non-conformities were in connection with electrical installations and their technical performance and condition, work in and operation of electrical installations, emergency power system, and transient voltage variations.

The revealed non-conformities also included emergency lighting, the fire water system, and non-conformity handling.

Apart from that, the four detected improvement points were connected to notification of hazard and accident situations, use of the emergency generator, safety equipment in switchrooms, and first aid in the event of electrical injury.

The PSA told Statoil that the deadline for reporting on how the non-conformities will be dealt with and how the improvement points will be assessed was March 24, 2017.