Offshore safety body looks into Repsol’s licensee obligations

Norwegian safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found an improvement point during an audit of Repsol’s obligations as a licensee in the country’s production licenses.

Repsol, a participant on the Norwegian Continental Shelf since 2003, is a licensee in 25 production licenses and is the operator of Gyda, Blane, Rev, Varg, and Yme fields.

Among others, Repsol Norge holds interests in Veslefrikk, Gudrun, Brage, and Tambar Øst fields and approximately 93% of the company’s production on the Norwegian shelf comes from unoperated fields.

The PSA said on Tuesday that no regulatory non-conformities were identified during the audit. However, an improvement point was identified concerning a more structured approach to how Repsol manages its license work in respect of safety-related factors.

The safety body added that, although the operating companies have a particular responsibility for complying with regulations, the licensees also have a role in this context and the PSA carried out audits of licensees on a number of occasions to verify that they were fulfilling their roles and responsibilities.

The audit of Repsol took place as a meeting at the company’s premises in Stavanger on May 9.

The object of the audit was to verify that Repsol has a management system for, and performs practical follow-up of, its role within the production licenses in compliance with the regulatory requirements and that the company has robust competence and capacity.

The agency told Repsol to report on how the improvement point would be assessed by July 20, at the latest.