The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) carried out audits, in 2014, focused on five operating companies’ preparations and plans for capping a potential blowout.

The purpose of the audit, which comprised Statoil, Shell, Det Norske, Lundin and OMV, was to examine which requirements and measures the different operators had established, in general terms and for a specific well they had drilled in the last year. As a background to the audits were the incidents at Montara in 2009 and Macondo in 2010.

The audits performed confirmed that all the companies had established plans for capping and that agreements have been signed concerning the availability of equipment in the event of a blowout. Agreements were also in place with companies offering services and expertise in operating this equipment.

The audits identified differences between the different companies in relation to:

- the content of emergency preparedness plans for capping operations and the degree of ownership of such plans;
- scope and maturity of own plans;
- degree of availability of personnel.

“In the light of the object of the audits and the observations we made, we decided to summarise all the factors in a joint letter to the companies, without associating the different findings specifically with individual operators. This has been done to ensure good transfer of experience from the audits,” PSA said in a press release.

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