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The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has carried out an audit of Premier Oil and the Bream development.

Bream is an oil discovery in block 17/12 in the central section of the North Sea, around 110 km from land south-west of Stavanger. The discovery was originally made by Phillips Petroleum Company Norway in 1972. The discovery was relinquished in 1994 and reawarded in 2007 as production licence 407.

Premier Oil Norway AS (PONAS) is the operator for the production licence. The licensee group is now preparing a plan for development and operation (PDO) of the discovery.

The proposed development solution consists of a subsea development with an FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) unit. Water depth in the area is between 105 and 120 metres.

The PSA performed an audit of the development project at the premises of engineering company Aibel in Asker on 11 November 2014. The audit was the second in a planned series of audits of this project.

The purpose of the audit was to follow up how PONAS is securing compliance with regulatory requirements for risk management during work on the PDO for the Bream development project. This part of the audit focused on selected topics in technical safety, process safety and electrical plant.

During the audit, an observation was made concerning the robustness of the proposed solution for fire water, which the PSA considers may present a challenge in terms of satisfying regulatory requirements in this area.