Room for improvement found in MOL’s first NCS drilling operation

Norwegian offshore safety watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found an improvement point during an audit of MOL Norge’s first drilling operation on the NCS.

The PSA said on Wednesday that it conducted the audit of the Hungarian operator’s Norwegian entity on June 20, 2018.

This is the second audit to be conducted regarding MOL Norge’s drilling of its first operated well on the NCS, designated 2/6-6 S. The first audit was conducted on August 14, 2018, with the results announced in early September. The topic of the audit was site-specific analyses of load-bearing structures. Although no non-conformities were found, improvement points were spotted during the audit.

The company received consent for exploration drilling of the North Sea well back in August. According to the consent, drilling was scheduled to begin in September 2018, last between 66 and 71 days, and would be drilled using the Rowan Viking drilling rig.

The safety body added on Wednesday that the objective of the audit was to verify the company’s robustness in respect of the management of health, safety, and the environment in the planning and preparation for the drilling of the well.

Requirements relating to the management of health, safety, and the environment were followed up together with verification that the management of HSE is adequately provided for by the company.

The company also had to show that it has robustness and safety margins that enable it to handle unforeseen incidents during the execution of exploration drilling.

The PSA said that no non-conformities were identified during the audit, but one improvement point concerning internal requirements was observed.

The safety authority told MOL to provide an assessment of the improvement point by October 30, 2018.