North Sea Well Control Incident Result of Platform Safety Breaches
Statoil has been criticised by The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) for regulatory breaches in relation to a well control incident at its Visund A platform earlier this year.
It follows a probe carried out by Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority into the 16 March incident at the North Sea platform that involved a well kick – or inflow from the reservoir – in connection with a well wash during completion of a drilling operation.
The well was shut in using a blowout preventer valve as an increase in volume was recorded after seawater ingress into the well following completion of the washing process.
However, while trying to kill the well, it was discovered that both kelly cock valves below the top drive had jammed, one in the closed position, preventing the use of normal kill procedures.
“The investigation has identified non-conformities relating to the design of well barriers, verification of well barriers, classification of safety-critical equipment, the maintenance programme for kelly cock valves and the configuration of the seabed BOP,” the PSA stated in its investigation report.
Statoil has been given a deadline of 18 August by which to respond to the PSA on how it intends to deal with the non-conformities.
