Room for improvement found on Johan Sverdrup welding work

Norwegian offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found two improvement points during an audit of detail engineering and fabrication of Statoil’s Johan Sverdrup drilling platform.

Johan Sverdrup is an oil and gas field under development at the Utsira High in the North Sea, 160 kilometers west of Stavanger.

Statoil is the operator of the field being developed using four fixed facilities with bridge connections. The remaining partners are Lundin Norway, Maersk Oil, Petoro, and Aker BP.

Phase 1 of Johan Sverdrup is under development with production scheduled to start in late 2019.

Phase 2 should be ready for the investment decision and submission of the plan for development and operation (PDO) in the second half of 2018 and ultimately come on stream in 2022. FEED contracts for Phase 2 of have already been awarded to Aker Solutions, Kværner and Siemens.

PSA said on Tuesday that the audit revealed no regulatory non-conformities. However, two improvement points have been identified related to quality-auditing of the supplier of welding personnel as well as the basis for qualifying welding procedures.

The audit of the detail engineering and fabrication of the drilling platform was done on February 22 and 23. The audit was conducted at Aibel’s yard in Haugesund, where the drilling support module (DSM) is being constructed.

The construction contract for the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform was awarded to Aibel in February 2015. The 22,500-tonne topsides will consist of three modules, one of which will be built at the yard in Haugesund, one at the Deeline yard in Thailand, and one at Nymo’s yard in Grimstad.

According to construction schedule, the modules should be assembled at Aibel’s yard in Haugesund in the autumn of 2017, before the platform is installed on the field in 2018.

PSA added that the probe is part of a series of audits focused on Statoil’s management and follow-up and Aibel’s design engineering of the DSM and main support frame (MSF) for the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform.

The PSA has told Statoil to report on how the improvement points will be assessed by April 28, 2017.