On 29 April 2009 the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) carried out a verification in connection with drilling systems on board Songa Dee, and on 7 May 2009, the PSA carried out a verification of the maintenance management systems.

The verifications targeted technical conditions on board the facility and review of the onshore maintenance management system. The activity is part of the processing of the application for Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) for the Songa Dee facility.

The audit was carried out at CCB on Sotra, where the facility is undergoing various upgrades as well as renewal of classification certificates. The activity consisted of a review of documents and verifications on board the facility.

Background for the audit Songa Offshore has submitted an application to the PSA for an AoC for Songa Dee. The facility did have an AoC previously, when operating for Stena Drilling on the Norwegian Shelf. Stena Drilling had the operational responsibility for Songa Dee until 17 March 2009.

Purpose of the audit The goal for the activity was to verify that the technical conditions in the relevant fields were in compliance with HSE regulations for the petroleum industry. The company’s own compliance measurements were used as basis for the verifications.

Result of the audit Reconstruction, upgrading and necessary maintenance were carried out on the facility during the verifications.

This entailed that the drilling area was not ready for verification as a lot of the equipment on the drilling deck was dismantled. Nor was the BOP available at the shipyard.

As a result, there was only a limited opportunity to verify how equipment and systems will work during operations.

Three non-conformities were identified in drilling systems, related to the drilling fluid facility.

Several non-conformities in safety-critical equipment were identified in maintenance management.

These had not been identified or had been the subject for an application of exemption for in the AoC application process.

The audit of the maintenance management was limited to a spot test of the company’s maintenance management system. Songa was implementing a new maintenance management system on board during the audit, from TAG 94 to ABS-NS 5.

TAG 94 was still in use on board during the audit. The transfer of historical data from the old to the new system had started, but was not complete. The code system in the new system does not comply with the NSFI code system.

Tags: Petroleum Safety Authority