Conducted from 15-19 October 2018, the audit aimed to follow up how Eni is complying with technical, operational and organisational regulatory requirements for electrical facilities on the Goliat floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit in the Barents Sea.

Regulatory breaches related to managing risk and barriers were identified, and the PSA has earlier given notice of a order.

Results

The PSA’s impression is that orders issued after earlier audits of the Goliat FPSO have had an effect. Eni’s work on following up Ex-motors has improved, for example, and the company has pursued further improvements related to training and procedures for the electrical discipline.

At the same time, the PSA sees challenges with the way the company works to take overall care of issues identified earlier. One example is training for certain functions within the electrical, instrumentation and telecommunication (EIT) area.

Faults and deficiencies are still be uncovered which, combined with the quantity of outstanding maintenance, presents challenges related to handling individual and overall risks on the facility.

Nonconformities being tackled are registered on an individual basis in Synergi. Verification that compensatory measures have been implemented in practice was inadequate. During the audit, the company could not explain how far the combined consequences of the nonconformities influence the overall risk picture on board.

The amount of outstanding work related to the electrical and instrumentation disciplines is relatively large. This applies to both improvements and the maintenance backlog. The workforce has been strengthened to improve the position, and plans exist for further strengthening both on the facility and in the land organisation.

Technical faults and deficiencies in key barrier elements, and in the follow-up of these in the SAP maintenance management system, have been identified by the audit.

The PSA’s observations from this audit show that faults and deficiencies still exist which, until they are corrected, represent a source of uncertainty which makes a negative contribution to the risk picture for the Goliat FPSO.

Following the audit, the PSA held a meeting with Eni on 14 November 2018 where the company presented aspects related to its management of major accident risk and measures already initiated to correct the nonconformity related to fire dampers (see item 5.1.1 in the audit report).

Nonconformities and improvement points

The audit identified nonconformities in the following areas (numbers refer to the report):

  • fire dampers (5.1.1)
  • emergency shutdown system (5.1.2)
  • emergency power – uninterruptable power supply (5.1.3)
  • emergency lighting (5.1.4)
  • safety systems, monitoring and control (5.1.5)
  • electrical installations (5.1.6)
  • training, organisation and operating procedures (5.1.7)
  • maintenance of safety critical equipment and functions (5.1.8)
  • evacuation from rooms containing high-voltage installations (5.1.9)
  • handling nonconformities (5.1.10)risk and barrier management (5.1.11).

An improvement point was also identified. This related to the availability of power in the emergency sick bay.

Order

The PSA’s audit showed improvements in a number of areas on the Goliat FPSO compared with earlier conditions. Nevertheless, deficiencies have been identified in key elements related to managing risk and barriers. See item 5.1.11 in the audit report.

Based on the findings the following order has now been issued to Vår Energi: 

Pursuant to section 69 of the framework regulations on administrative decisions, see section 6 of the management regulations on management of health, safety and the environment, Vår Energi AS is ordered to do the following.

Draw up a realistic and binding plan for completing outstanding safety-critical work on the Goliat FPSO. That also includes completing the status of the technical condition of safety-critical barriers.

The deadline for compliance with the order is 1 March 2019. The PSA must be informed when the order has been carried out.