The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority is investigating the development of Equinor and Johan Castberg – E24

The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority is launching an investigation into the causes of the challenges with the completion of hulls and equipment at the Johan Castberg field.

The background is the information that the PSA was presented at a licensing meeting with Equinor, Petoro and Vår Energi on June 25, 2020.

Known in June

“On June 25, 2020, the PSA realized that Equinor had identified significant challenges related to the quality of welds on the Johan Castberg FPSO hull. In addition, the PSA was aware that errors had been discovered in the analysis program used for the fatigue calculations. The repair work means that Johan Castberg’s helmet will be delayed relative to the development and operation plan (PDO). Remediation work related to welding and fatigue analysis errors also carries an uncertainty related to the integrity of the hull over the life of the field, “writes the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority in its report on the background of the investigation.

As Aftenbladet understands, the investigation will be limited to the period from the award of the contract for the manufacture of the helmet until the PSA becomes aware of the scope of the challenges on June 25, 2020.

Equinor arrived in bad weather after an unusual number of weld defects were discovered on Johan Castberg’s helmet. In addition, it has also been revealed that a bug in the Sesam Softus software has led Equinor to miscalculate the fatigue life in parts of the helmet.

The extensive welding errors that have cropped up in connection with the Johan Castberg project became known to the public in earnest after Bellona in two letters in August pointed out what was going on in the Castberg project. The letters were sent to the Norwegian authorities and went to the top of the Ministry of Oil and Energy by Minister Tina Bru.

Several of the issues that Bellona raised then have now proven to be relevant in nature to the case, also when it comes to the fact that multiple FPSOs can be affected by the same problem with the program error in the computer program as Johan Castberg.

– Why were the errors not disclosed?

“The purpose of the investigation is to identify the reasons why Johan Castberg-
The project organization has not discovered the welding and analysis errors at an earlier time. The project monitoring strategy, reporting to licensees and authorities, as well as project verification plans, will be included in the investigation. The research will also contribute to learning for future field developments, “writes the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority.