Transocean Offshore – Transocean Equinox – Electrical Facilities & Technical Safety

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has carried out an audit of Transocean Offshore (Transocean) focused on electrical facilities and technical safety on the Transocean Equinox mobile drilling facility.

The audit was conducted from 6 to 12 May 2022, and was coordinated with the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) and the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB), which carried out their annual checks of the facility.

Objective
The objective of the audit was to monitor that the operation of electrical facilities and the requirements for responsible persons for electrical facilities are being fulfilled in accordance with the regulations. Verification was also made of whether technical safety systems are being operated and maintained so as to fulfil their designated functions.

Result
As a result of identified non-conformities during the audit of Transocean Equinox, the NMA issued 15 orders. The identified non-conformities involve non-compliance with maritime regulations that equate to the HSE regulations, see Section 3 of the Framework Regulations on the application of maritime regulations in the offshore petroleum activities, and are thus also breaches of the petroleum regulations.

DSB identified a number of non-conformities during the audit. These involve non-compliance with maritime regulations that equate to the HSE regulations, see Section 3 of the Framework Regulations on the application of maritime regulations in the offshore petroleum activities, and are thus also breaches of the petroleum regulations.

The NMA and the DSB have submitted their audit reports separately.

During the audit, the PSA identified one non-conformity, relating to follow-up.

We also observed one condition that we have chosen to categorize as an improvement point. This concerned risk assessments.

What happens now?
We have asked Transocean to report to us by 29 August 2022 on how the non-conformities will be addressed, and for their assessment of the improvement point observed.