ITALIAN energy conglomerate ENI has been ordered to collect environmental data for its Goliat oilfield project in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) went public on the issue, stating that, according to ENI’s plan for development and operation (PDO) of Goliat, it has no plans to carry out collection and real-time reporting of meteorological and oceanographic data during production drilling and the production period on Goliat.
Goliat is located in an area where there is not a good basis for forecasting weather and oceanographic conditions.
The PSA says there is a need to improve the quality of the basic data used for weather forecasting in the area, and since Goliat is located in an area with unique meteorological phenomena, particularly low-pressure fronts that create fast-moving windstorms, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MI) said it believes a regular meteorological and oceanographic observation service should be established on the Goliat field to facilitate forecasting weather in the region and that a METAR service should be provided for on the Goliat platform.
Therefore, the PSA has ordered Eni Norge to implement collection and real-time reporting of meteorological and oceanographic data during production drilling and the production period on Goliat.
This includes the METAR service. In addition, near real-time measurements are to be taken of the current using a high-frequency coastal radar or some other satisfactory method, together with the profile measurements, during the production period.