Equinor – Gullfaks C – management of major accident risk and barriers

Published: 24 May 2022

• Risk management
• Process safety
• Barrier management

The audit was conducted from 14 to 29 March 2022.

Objective

The objective of the audit was to assess how Equinor ensures compliance with regulatory requirements related to the management of major accident risk and barriers within technical safety and process safety at Gullfaks C. In the audit, we also sought to verify that previously identified non-conformities and an order that was made have been handled in accordance with the responses given.

Result

Three non-conformities were identified. These concerned:

• Management of non-conformities
• Documentary basis for management of major accident risk
• Weakened barrier elements

Three improvement points were also identified. These concerned:

• Processing of inspection findings
• Practice of overriding safety systems
• Facility-specific competence, training and exercises
• Task and resource management for integrity tasks

Follow-up of non-conformities

In the audit, we also investigated how Equinor has handled an order and a non-conformity that was identified in the investigation of the oil spill via the produced water installation on Gullfaks C during start-up of the Tordis satellite wells on 26 April 2021.

The following non-conformity had not been addressed in line with the company's feedback to us:

• Non-conformity concerning "Deficiencies in the system and operating documentation", chapter 9.1.2

What happens now?

We have asked Equinor to report by 20 June 2022 on how the non-conformities will be addressed and for their assessment of the improvement points observed.

Additional information is not available in English