The PSA has carried out an audit of Gassco in respect of electrical plant and major accident risk at the Kårstø facility.
Kårstø is located at Tysvær in Rogaland county and is a processing facility for gas and condensate. The facility receives gas by pipeline from the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. After the wet gas products have been separated out, the dry gas is piped to Germany, while the wet gas products are transported from the facility by ship.
From 8 to 11 November 2016, the PSA carried out an audit of major accident risk and electrical plant at Kårstø, where Gassco AS (Gassco) is the operator and Statoil ASA the technical service provider (TSP). The purpose of the audit was to assess the activities being undertaken to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements for electrical plant.
The audit revealed non-conformities relating to:
- Arcing in electrical equipment
- Work in and operation of electrical installations
- Protection against ignition and the spread of fire
- Emergency lighting
- Maintenance of explosion-proof equipment
- Notification of hazard and accident situations
- Non-conformity handling
In addition, improvement points were detected in connection with:
- Heating cable installations
- Test routines for safety equipment in switchrooms
- Maintenance programme
- Electrotechnical system analyses
Gassco has been given a deadline of 30 January 2017 to report on how the non-conformities will be dealt with and how the improvement points will be assessed.
Based on this audit, on 16 November 2016 the PSA issued an order to Gassco and Statoil to implement measures to secure personal safety in connection with work on and operation of electrical installations at the Kårstø facilities.