Repsol has confirmed it is carrying out maintenance at its Montrose platform as the asset joins the operator’s list of projects to stop production.
The North Sea operator told Energy Voice: “Repsol UK can confirm that we are undertaking a maintenance shutdown of our Montrose facility.”
This comes soon after Repsol was forced to stop production at its Fulmar platform due to a prohibition notice served by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The firm has attracted the attention of the safety watchdog following a string of violations, including lagging maintenance on the Fulmar’s deluge system.
As a result of the Fulmar prohibition, Repsol’s Clyde and Auk have also “temporarily halted”, the company explained.
This is because Repsol uses Fulmar to transport oil and gas from the Flyndre, Auk and Clyde fields.
Montrose also joins the Bleo Holm floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which shut down a week ago.
On this, the firm said it had “elected to undertake a maintenance shutdown” of the FPSO.
The HSE said: “We are aware that Repsol has stopped production on Bleo Holm and Yesterday Montrose.
“Although this was not due to enforcement action by HSE, we are aware of the circumstances of the shutdowns.”
In November the UK regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), handed out its largest-ever fine to Repsol for “unreasonable practice” which led to a shut-in at the Flyndre field in 2020.
The fine handed to the North Sea operator totalled £350,000.
Rig Deluge managing director Ian Garden has previously raised concerns about Repsol’s North Sea operations, namely the work conducted on the Fulmar A platform.
Garden also visited Repsol’s Auk and the Montrose platforms, raising similar issues to those at Fulmar.
After his team found issues with the deluge systems on the installations, Garden claimed this was due to problems such as blocked delivery lines and nozzles.
North Sea maintenance backlog
Earlier this year, the HSE said it had seen “extremely worrying” cases of North Sea operators going “backwards” on critical maintenance.
The safety-critical maintenance backlog has been flagged as a major issue in the North Sea following the COVID pandemic, however Unite claims that the UK’s safety watchdog is not doing enough to combat the issue.
In a recent interview with Energy Voice, Unite the Union’s John Boland explained that “deferred maintenance is shooting up” as offshore risk assessments argue that work can be carried out less regularly.
“Basically, maintenance isn’t actually getting done, it’s just getting put off,” the union’s regional officer said.
This was in response to the cessation of drilling activities at Ithaca Energy’s Captain field after a crane failed.
Following the incident at Ithaca’s wellhead protector platform (WPP), Boland argued that delayed maintenance work “could lead to really bad situations”.
He added: “We’re obviously concerned about this situation that is happening with the Captain WPP but we’re also concerned about the wider industry.”
