Norwegian Safety Watchdog Probes Snorre A

Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway has recently carried out an audit of integrity and barrier management for flexible risers and systems for pressure safety/emergency shutdown at Snorre A.

PSA said it identified three non-conformities in connection with: Operating parameters for flexible risers and jumpers; Follow-up of emergency shutdown valves; and Integrity management of flexible risers and jumpers.

In addition, two improvement points were identified in connection with: Management of competence and Risk management of flexible risers and jumpers.

Equinor has been given a deadline of 20 August 2018 to report on how the non-conformities and improvement points will be addressed.

Snorre A is an integrated production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) unit. This tension leg platform (TLP) is moored to the seabed by steel tethers.

Partly stabilised oil and gas from Snorre A is piped to the nearby Statfjord A platform for final processing. The oil is then loaded into shuttle tankers, while the gas is transported on to continental Europe through the Statpipe system and to St Fergus, Scotland through the Tampen link.

In December last year, Equinor submitted a plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Snorre Expansion Project.

The Snorre Expansion, located in the Tampen area of the North Sea, covers the delivery of subsea production systems and includes 6 subsea templates, pipelines and umbilicals between the subsea templates and Snorre A and upgrading of Snorre A for reception of production from the subsea templates and for supplying injection water and gas to the subsea templates.

Equinor is the operator of the field with 33.27%interest, Petoro holds 30%, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway 17.44%, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge 9.6%, DEA Norge 8.57% and Point Resources holds 1.1%.