The Petroleum Safety Authority has issued an order to Transocean Offshore Ltd (Transocean) after serious breaches of the regulations were identified during an audit of the company and the company’s system for maintenance management in the period 19 January – 1 March 2012.

The audit targeted selected parts of Transocean’s maintenance management system, and how it is used and followed up in the organisation onshore and offshore.

The audit activity revealed that Transocean’s maintenance management system still did not satisfy the regulatory requirements. The activity was carried out in the form of spot checks on a random selection of equipment and documentation.

Examples of important factors include: • It emerged during interviews that the new maintenance management system was not very user-friendly. • Maintenance programs for a number of equipment units and components were missing. • It was difficult to identify and track randomly selected equipment in RMS. • It was unclear which method and criteria were used to assess criticality and to determine which equipment/barriers were safety-critical. • The facility structure (the hierarchy) does not encompass all equipment in such a way that it can easily be identified in the facility, on drawings and in the PM program. • Deficiencies in the maintenance history system. • Performance requirements for important barrier elements were not always verified through testing and inspection activities in the maintenance system.

Tags: Petroleum Safety Authority, Transocean Inc.