Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority has carried out an audit of Equinor’s management of barriers within technical safety, process safety and electrical facilities on the Gudrun field. The audit identified regulatory non-conformities in respect of methods for establishing design loads for fires and of deficient non-conformity handling.
Our audit was conducted from 5 to 8 June 2018 and its objective was to verify that Equinor’s management and follow-up of technical, organisational and operational barriers complied with the company’s and the authorities’ requirements, so as to reduce the probability of failures.
The audit also identified improvement points linked to barrier management, passive fire protection, function testing of facilities for fire-fighting, inspection programme for pipe penetrations in firewalls, equipment labelling, damage to cables and information on following up hazard and accident situations.
We have asked Equinor to report to us by 21 September 2018 on how the non-conformities will be addressed. We have also requested the company’s assessment of the improvement points observed.
The Gudrun field is in the North Sea, west of Stavanger, around 50 km north of the Sleipner field. The field came on stream in April 2014, with Equinor as the operator.
