Offshore regulator looks at ExxonMobil’s well abandonment at Jotun B

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found several improvement points during an audit of ExxonMobil’s Jotun B platform offshore Norway. 

The Jotun field is located in the North Sea, 200 km west of Stavanger. Water depth at the site is 126 meters. The field was developed with two installations, a wellhead platform Jotun B and a production vessel Jotun A.

The PSA said on Monday that the objective of the audit was to verify the companies’ management systems and technical solutions for meeting the regulatory and standards requirements. The direct purpose was to contribute to the potential for reducing OHAS, environmental and major accident risks to the greatest possible extent.

The agency identified eight improvement points relating to risk register, maintenance, data transfers, manning and competence, the safety representative role, lifting equipment, well control, and installations and systems and equipment. No non-conformities were found during the audit.

The safety regulator added that the audit was conducted from September 1, 2016, to August 25, 2017. The audit focused on ExxonMobil’s activities relating to module-based drilling facilities and permanent plugging and abandonment of the wells at the Jotun B facility.

The activities on Jotun B involved Halliburton, Petroleum Well Service, Aker MHWirth, and Aker Solutions and several other drilling and well service companies.

ExxonMobil was given a deadline of November 1 to report on how the improvement points would be addressed.

In related news, offshore shipping company Simon Møkster Shipping informed on Tuesday that one of its vessels would leave layup as a result of a new contract with ExxonMobil related to the decommissioning of the Jotun B platform.