PSA Norway Carries Out Audit of Emergency Preparedness on Asgard B

The audit of emergency preparedness on Åsgard B was carried out in parallel with an audit of employee involvement from 18-20 May 2011.

During 18-20 May 2011, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) carried out an audit activity targeting Åsgard B, which is a floating production facility for gas and condensate. Åsgard B is located on Haltenbanken and is operated by Statoil Petroleum AS.

Simultaneously with this audit activity, the PSA also carried out an audit with the topic of employee involvement. For practical purposes, two separate audit reports were prepared.

Background

The audit activity targeted the emergency preparedness discipline and was mainly based in the petroleum regulations, including “Chapter VI Operational prerequisites for startup and use, and Chapter XIII Emergency preparedness of the Regulations relating to conduct of activities in the petroleum activities (Activities Regulations), and Chapter VI Emergency preparedness of the Regulations relating to design and outfitting of facilities, etc. in the petroleum activates (Facilities Regulations)”.

The audit activity was based on one of the PSA’s main priorities for 2011, which is ”Technical and operational barriers”.

Objective

The objective of the audit was to verify whether operation of the facility complies with the regulatory requirements, as well as Statoil’s own internal company requirements.

The audit activity set out to verify whether the emergency preparedness level on the Åsgard B production facility complied with the requirements stipulated in the regulations and in Statoil’s own governing documents.

The following aspects where emphasises during the audit:

• Management of the emergency preparedness on board
• Expertise of personnel with emergency preparedness functions
• Emergency preparedness equipment on the facility
• Emergency preparedness organisation, area preparedness
• Emergency preparedness exercise/MOB exercise
• ICT safety
• System for completing and learning from exercises and training
• Technical safety condition (TTS); status of emergency preparedness conditions
• Signposting and marking of escape routes
• Training the deputy role
• Interaction onshore/offshore

Results

The audit activity was well-facilitated by Statoil and the involved personnel contributed in a constructive and positive manner.

The main impression is that emergency preparedness is well-maintained on Åsgard B. The emergency preparedness organisation appeared robust. However, some deficiencies were identified in connection with technical and operative factors of the emergency preparedness. The following nonconformities in relation to the regulations were identified:

• Crane capacity for deployment of MOB boat
• Emergency hospital

Furthermore, improvement items were identified in connection with:

• Safety signposting and labelling
• Training of emergency preparedness personnel
• Information about guidelines for ICT safety