During the period 16 - 17 September 2008, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) conducted an audit at the Kårstø facility. The purpose of the audit was to consider whether the activities at Kårstø are carried out in accordance with regulatory requirements and recognised standards. The audit was limited to circumstances relating to the risk of major accidents.

The audit was conducted based on the Temporary regulations relating to safety and working environment for certain petroleum facilities on land and associated pipeline systems, with reference to the Major Accidents Regulations.

The purpose of the audit was to verify compliance with applicable regulatory requirements in areas which may influence the risk of major accidents.

Prioritized topics were the work of following up actions after last year's major accident audit and this year's audit plan, including how simultaneous modification and operations are followed up.

Circumstances related to emergency preparedness were also examined.

The HSE authorities have prepared an overview of relevant topics for the audit with actions to prevent and limit the consequences of major accidents which was used as a basis for the audit activity.

The activity gave no indications that Gassco and StatoilHydro as technical service provider do not comply with the requirements related to said topics.

Tags: Petroleum Safety Authority, StatoilHydro