French supermajor Total’s Norwegian arm has been reprimanded by the Scandinavian country’s safety watchdog over “serious deficiencies” in connection with the Martin Linge Project.
The Petroleum Safety Authority made the discoveries while auditing the Samsung yard in South Korea where the fixed production facility for the North Sea project is under construction.
The PSA said the “serious deficiencies” emerged through presentations, conversations, interviews and verifications relating to such areas as preservation, electrical facilities and barrier management.
The report added: “These were a result of inadequate compliance with requirements in the regulations as well as with the project’s own requirements and procedures. The PSA’s observations show inadequate follow-up in the project.
“Preservation of equipment and systems, both indoors and outdoors, was inadequate. This meant that equipment and systems were exposed to large quantities of dust, water, particles, impurities and so forth from ongoing construction and commissioning activities.
“The consequences of inadequate preservation during the completion phase will be resource-intensive and time-consuming cleaning and, in the worst case, the need to replace weakened or damaged equipment and components. Furthermore, it could mean big challenges in planning and implementing commissioning and start-up work offshore.
“Faults and deficiencies were also identified in the professional execution of electrical installations.”
The Martin Linge oil and gas field is in the northern part of Norway’s North Sea sector, 42 kilometres west of Oseberg. It is currently under development, due to come on stream in 2018.
The field is being developed with a fully integrated fixed production facility supported by a steel jacket, combined with a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit for oil storage.
On the basis of the findings made during the audit, the PSA has ordered Total to identify and correct possible faults and deficiencies
The oil major is also to assess applicable plans, prioritisation and use of resources to ensure acceptable commissioning before installation on the field
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