From 7 to 14 June 2018, Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority carried out an audit of Equinor’s operations at Kristin platform. The scope of the audit was on materials handling, use and maintenance of lifting equipment and scaffolding/access techniques, as well as its contractors’ practices within regular working environment mapping and follow-up of working environment risk, especially for SIP personnel, catering personnel and process operators.
The objective of the activity within logistics and work at height was to:
- Audit the company’s management of materials handling, lifting operations and the technical condition of lifting equipment at Kristin
- Monitor that Equinor’s management of the maintenance of lifting equipment and scaffolding material complies with the company’s and the authorities’ requirements within the scope of the audit
- Monitor tasks performed by the scaffolding division, as well as access techniques and work at height.
The objective for the working environment was to:
- Assess whether Equinor’s and its contractors’ management systems and practices in respect of regular working environment mapping and follow-up of working environment risk comply with the regulations
- Monitor that Equinor, in collaboration with its contractors, is ensuring that framework conditions included in contracts do not have negative HSE consequences
- Assess how Equinor and its contractors facilitate genuine employee participation.
The audit identified regulatory non-conformities in the following areas:
- Follow-up of findings after controls performed by an enterprise of competence for lifting equipment
- Compliance measurement of the offshore cranes and management system for safe use of lifting equipment
- Lifting equipment and loading areas
- Scaffolding
- Access techniques
- Mapping of workload and assessment of the risk of work-related musculo-skeletal disorders
- Noise and vibration
- Management of the organisational and psycho-social working environment
- Cooperation between the occupational health services
In addition, improvement points were observed in the following areas:
- Roles and responsibilities
- Competence in the repair and maintenance of lifting equipment
- Unsecured lifting equipment
- Cargo deck
- Marking of the cargo deck
- Safety marking
We have asked Equinor to report to us by 31 October 2018 on how they intend to address the non-conformities identified. We have also requested the company’s assessment of the improvement points observed.