The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority has flagged the Teekay-owned Petrojarl Knarr FPSO with several “non-conformities” that must be addressed in order for the facility to continue operations.
The issues were found during a recent PSA audit of the unit, which is moored at the Shell-operated Knarr field in the North Sea approximately 500 kilometers from Snorre, Norway. The facility is used to process oil and gas from the field for loading directly onto ships or piped to shore, respectively.
The PSA said the audit, conducted October 3 through 6, was meant to test how well Shell is managing the integrity of flexible risers, transfer lines and associated safety equipment, and of Teekay’s activities as production operator. The audit revealed non-conformities relating specifically to overpressure protection of gas export pipeline; follow-up of overpressure protection performance requirements; passive fire protection; and follow-up of flexible pipelines.
The PSA also gave a list of improvements points found during the audit.
Shell took over as operator of the Knarr field in February 2016 through its acquisition of BG Group. Production on the field began in March 2015.
The Petrojarl Knarr was delivered in 2014 as Teekay’s largest project to date. The Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, built at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, has a production capacity of 63,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and a storage capacity of 800,000 barrels of oil. It is currently on year two of a six-year time charter contract that includes extension options that Teekay originally signed with BG Group.
The PSA has given Teekay and Shell a deadline of February 1, 2017 to report on how they will deal with non-conformities and how the improvement points will be assessed.
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