The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has issued an order to Equinor after an audit of material handling and management of the working environment on Martin Linge A. This showed that non-conformities that were identified earlier by the PSA have not been corrected.
Carried out from 21-24 January 2019, this supervisory activity regarded Equinor and its material handling and working environment management during commissioning of the A facility on the Norwegian North Sea field.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
The audit found that the lifting equipment operator, who was responsible for carrying out daily and monthly maintenance, did not have the necessary training to inspect and maintain steel wire rope. In addition, the existence of a system for inspecting and maintaining such rope on the cranes could not be identified.
In addition, the audit showed that the local supplement to Norsok R-003, which is the basis for Equinor’s fulfilment of the requirements in section 92 of the activities regulations, was deficient in its description of critical lifting operations, crane restrictions and conditions regarding the use of the cranes in offshore hook-up work.
PSA director of supervision Ingvill H Foss, stated:
These nonconformities relate to procedures for crane and lifting operations and to training. We consider it important for safety that these procedures are in place
The same problems were identified by an audit of Equinor on 4-5 June 2018 as well. On 22 June 2018, the PSA gave Equinor its consent to take parts of Martin Linge A into use, but under the condition that the non-conformities which had then been identified were corrected.
Before consent was given, Equinor provided the PSA with written confirmation that the non-conformities identified by the authority would be mitigated with before the facility was taken into use.
Despite this confirmation, PSA Norway informed that Equinor has not corrected the non-conformities and has breached the conditions of the consent.
As a result, Equinor now has to:
- Review its systems for follow up and use of lifting equipment on facilities, including local procedures and necessary competence for personnel using such equipment;
- Implement the necessary measures identified by the review in order to correct non-conformities.
The deadline for compliance with the order is 8 March 2019. PSA must be informed when the order has been conducted.