Australia's offshore energy regulator has issued Ensco Australia with two more improvement notices (INs) to add to the one from earlier this month which halted Santos' drilling campaign at the Barossa gas field.
While one of the notices relates to the same Valaris MS-1 platform cited in the notice issued at the start of May, the other relates to the VALARIS DPS-1 semi-submersible rig which is currently undertaking Scarborough and Pluto PLA08 well construction activities in Woodside's title areas WA-61-L and WA-34-L, respectively.
As reported by ENB, regulator NOPSEMA issued the first improvement notice against Ensco, a contractor that has now been bought out by Valaris, after inspectors identified issues with the blowout preventer (BOP) system prompted by safety concerns on the Valaris MS-1 platform. According to NOPSEMA this IN has now been complied with by Ensco.
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The new improvement notices come after planned inspections that identified shortcomings with Ensco's safety management system (SMS) policies and procedures relating to the application of the Management of Change (MOC) Procedure, Operational Risk Assessment (ORA) and the blow out preventer (BOP) "decision tree" that guide assurance processes before and after BOP deployment, as well as decisions aroundun planned BOP retrievals.
In the INs, the NOPSEMA inspector states that as a result of the contravention, there is a health risk in that a "non-compliant BOP may be deployed and used during well operations at the VALARIS MS-1 facility, presenting a safety critical equipment failure risk during a well control and/or blowout event."
Ensco has been given 60 days from 15 May to complete a review of the SMS documentation governing the management and decision-making process for BOP assurance and for unplanned BOP retrieval.
Despite the issuing three INs to the same company in less than a fortnight, NOPSEMA would not confirm if this trigger any deeper investigation into Ensco's operations.
A spokesperson for the regulator told ENB: "NOPSEMA expects operators to meet the requirements of Commonwealth offshore petroleum OHS legislation and environmental management law across all aspects of their activities.
"The improvement notices indicate areas that have not met regulatory obligations and where action is required to ensure those obligations are fully addressed. As the regulator, NOPSEMA plays an active role in educating and guiding industry to support continuous improvement and ensure regulatory expectations are clearly understood."
ENB has contacted Valaris for a response.
