STABILITY and ballasting concerns on the new Gjoa field floating production unit have prompted the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to issue a circular to operators of semi-submersible facilities on the Norwegian shelf.
The PSA said several design weaknesses linked to ballasting and floating stability were found during final commissioning of the unit.
It said these problems were discovered just before the Gjoa platform was towed out to the field and, in one case, led to minor heeling of the platform following a short circuit.
Another case was linked to deficient stability calculations in a potentially damaged condition.
The PSA said in a statement: “Weaknesses could, under certain circumstances, have resulted in serious consequences, but were corrected before the Gjoa facility was towed out.”
The alert notes that Norway’s largest operator, Statoil, has also completed an assessment of the same factors for its semi-submersible production facilities. Gjoa is part of that portfolio.
“We believe it is important to share information about these conditions with other players in the industry,” said the authority.
“To this end, we have sent information to all companies that operate semi-submersible mobile facilities on the Norwegian shelf, so they have the opportunity to ensure there are no similar faults on their facilities.”