The first part of the audit covered Island Drilling's operational organisation onshore and was carried out on 6-8 January 2026.

The audit has so far shown that parts of Island Drilling’s maintenance management system, maintenance analyses and maintenance programme do not meet the regulatory requirements.

Conditions for Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC)

All mobile facilities registered in a national register of shipping must have an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) in order to participate in petroleum activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Due to the uncertainty associated with the fact that Island Innovator has been away from the Norwegian Continental Shelf for a long time, and to the non-conformities we have found in this audit, we will carry out various audit activities in the future to assess whether the facility continues to meet the requirements for retaining an AoC.

Island Drilling received an AoC for the Island Innovator facility in 2019, based on the Authority’s follow-up of the company and the information they provided about the facility and organisational conditions.

Continued use of an AoC is contingent on the basis, prerequisites and other conditions given in the AoC being followed up and maintained. If the prerequisites for the AoC change, or it is based on erroneous information, it will become invalid, with reference to the guideline to Section 25 of the Framework Regulations.

Our observations

In our audit of safe operations and maintenance, we have so far found that:

  • Compliance measurement against the Activities Regulations section 46 concerning classification has not been performed.
  • Island Drilling does not follow its own requirements for evaluating maintenance and its maintenance management system.
  • Not all equipment and systems on the facility were identified in the maintenance management system.
  • Equipment in the maintenance management system was not classified in accordance with NORSOK Z-008, which the company has adopted.
  • Over 36,000 equipment tags were not classified in respect of safety
  • The maintenance system lacks information about main, sub-function and redundancy levels
  • The maintenance analyses that form the basis of the maintenance programme were not available or known to personnel who have a role in maintenance management.
  • Maintenance data is not collected in accordance with ISO 14224, as adopted by the company, to ensure the necessary effectiveness of maintenance and reliability of equipment and systems.
  • The system for reporting the need for changes in the maintenance system, i.e. "change request", is not used. Changes are made without being registered in any system.
  • The actual performance of barrier elements relative to the company’s own performance requirements could not be viewed in the maintenance management system or in any other system.
  • Relevant personnel did not trust that the barrier panel showed the real status of the barriers. It was not known which data formed the basis for the status of the barriers in the panel.

Order

On this basis, we have now issued Island Drilling with the following order:

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, we order Island Drilling to:

1. Review and document:

a) that compliance measurement of the management system and associated work processes per the Activities Regulations, sections 45-49, has been carried out, with reference to the Management Regulations, section 21 concerning follow-up

b) that systems and equipment on the facility are classified, with reference to the Activities Regulations, section 46 concerning classification

c) that failure modes that may pose a health, environmental or safety risk are systematically prevented by means of a maintenance programme, with reference to the Activities Regulations, section 47 concerning maintenance programmes

d) that the collection, processing and use of maintenance and reliability data are established and that the consequence of maintenance is systematically evaluated, with reference to the Activities Regulations, section 49 concerning maintenance effectiveness, and the Management Regulations, section 19 concerning the collection, processing and use of data

e) that there is awareness of which barriers and barrier elements are not functioning or are impaired, with reference to the Management Regulations, section 5 concerning barriers

2. Present a time-delimited and binding plan of activities to fulfil items 1 to 5 of the order, with reference to the Management Regulations, section 12 concerning planning and section 22 concerning the handling of non-conformities.

3. Identify and implement necessary compensatory measures until the order is fulfilled, with reference to the Management Regulations, section 22 concerning the handling of non-conformities
The deadline for complying with item 3 of the order is before the facility is taken into use.

The deadline for complying with item 2 of the order is 13 February 2026.

The deadline for complying with item 1 of the order will be given in the company's time-delimited plan, with reference to item 2 of the order.

We are to be notified when the order has been carried out.