PSA probes barrier management on ExxonMobil’s FPSO Balder

From 10 to 28 April, 2015, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway carried out an audit of ExxonMobil and the Balder floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Balder field is located in the North Sea, approximately 190 km northwest of Stavanger. It is developed with a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO) and several subsea production systems.

According to the PSA, the objective of the audit was to assess how ExxonMobil is implementing and safeguarding compliance with the barrier and barrier management requirements in the domains of technical safety, process safety and flexible risers.

As a result of this audit, the PSA says that non-conformities were identified in connection with barrier management system, securing of valves and acceptance criteria and risk analyses.

In addition, improvement points were identified in connection with: The drainage system on the connector deck; The maintenance system; The emergency shutdown system; Passive fire protection of the gas emissions system; Fire water; and Documentation.

According to the regulator, ExxonMobil has been given a deadline of June 30, 2015 to report on how non-conformities and improvement points will be dealt with.

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