Safety rap for Equinor over Kristin platform

Norway’s offshore safety agency, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), has found several non-conformities during an audit of Equinor’s Kristin platform located in the Norwegian Sea.

The audit was carried out from 19 to 22 March 2018 as a follow-up of vibration and cable chafing at the Kristin platform.

Namely, during 2017, it became known that Kristin had major problems with vibration and cable chafing and the PSA had discussions and meetings with Equinor in the autumn of 2017 to find out the status of these issues and the measures that Equinor had implemented to protect the integrity of Kristin.

Because Equinor had not managed to acquire a full overview of the challenges of cable chafing and vibration, in autumn 2017, reinforced efforts on this issue were initiated. Equinor also conducted an internal audit of technical barriers on Kristin focused on leak prevention (vibration) and ignition source control (cable chafing).

The audit also comprised general aspects of technical integrity and barrier management, the agency said on Wednesday.

The objective of the audit was to follow up Equinor’s work on protecting integrity at Kristin and was primarily focused on factors relating to vibration and cable chafing.

The PSA said: “We wanted to see the results of the measures undertaken, gain knowledge of the lessons learned during the improvement works, and be presented with an updated risk picture for Kristin.”

Three non-conformities were identified in connection with reporting of hazard and accident situations; follow-up of established management system; and classification of safety-critical equipment. No improvement points were identified.

Equinor has been given a deadline of June 15, 2018, to report on how the non-conformities will be addressed.