Offshore safety body finds electrical issues during Edvard Grieg audit

Norway’s safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found five non-conformities and six improvement points during an audit of electrical facilities on the Edvard Grieg field, off Norway.

The PSA said on Monday that the audit, conducted from May 23 to June 1, targeted Lundin’s work to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements for electrical facilities.

The audit was conducted in the form of meetings, discussions, document reviews, verifications, and functional testing of facilities on the Edvard Grieg platform.

The non-conformities identified during the audit were in regards to electrical facilities and ignition source control and technical conditions, work in and operation of electrical facilities, rooms for high-voltage installations, emergency power systems, and notification of hazard and accident situations.

Also, the offshore safety body found improvement points relating to installations in electrical facilities, barrier management, an overview of overrides and disconnections of safety systems and jumper logs, non-conformity handling, routines and control system for electrical systems, and temporary equipment.

The agency added that the audit placed particular emphasis on how Lundin is working to ensure that electrical facilities and those parts of the company’s management system covering the roles, responsibilities, and duties of the responsible person for electrical facilities during design, operation, modification, and maintenance, comply at all times with the requirements of the petroleum regulations.

The field is located in the central sector of the North Sea, 35 kilometers south of Grane and Balder, and has been developed using a fixed platform with a steel jacket and a full processing installation. There is also a separate jack-up rig for drilling and completing wells. Production from the field began back in 2015.

Lundin Norway is the operator with an ownership interest of 65 percent. Other licensees are OMV with 20 percent, and Wintershall Norge with 15 percent.

The operator was asked by the PSA to address non-conformities and provide an assessment of the improvement points by August 16, at the latest.

To remind, the PSA also found irregularities during an audit of working environment risk management and arrangements for employee participation on the Edvard Grieg field back in late June.