Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway -- Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway has issued a circular to operators of semisubmersible floating facilities on the Norwegian shelf, in connection with recent issues affecting the Gjøa field platform.
Earlier this year, prior to the towout of the platform to the North Sea, various design weaknesses were identified that were linked to ballasting and floating stability. According to the PSA, in one incident minor heeling of the platform occurred following a short circuit. Investigations also uncovered deficient stability calculations in a potential damage condition.
In both cases there could have been serious consequences, but the weaknesses were corrected before the Gjøa facility was towed out. Statoil has since completed an assessment of the same factors for its other Norwegian semisubmersible production facilities.
The PSA said in a statement: “We believe that it is important to share information about these conditions with other players in the industry. To this end, we have sent out such information to all companies that operate semisubmersible mobile facilities on the Norwegian shelf, so that they will have the opportunity to ensure that there are no similar faults on their facilities.”
09/07/2010
