Equinor – Sture – Alarm Management System in Control Room

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has carried out an audit of Equinor and its management of responsibilities for, competence with and maintenance of the alarm management system in the control room at the Sture onshore plant. This audit was carried out in 2021.

Background
In recent years, the PSA has undertaken a number of audits concerning follow-up of alarm systems on drilling facilities, at onshore plants and on production facilities.

This work has found that these alarm systems fail to meet the company's requirements. Furthermore, other audits have identified high alarm rates and many standing alarms.

These findings suggest that deficiencies may be present in both follow-up of the systems and understanding of the impact which high alarm rates and many standing alarms may have on working conditions for control room operators.

The PSA audited the control rooms of most Norwegian offshore facilities and onshore plants in 2021.

Objective
The objective of the audit was to verify that the operator company follows up the alarm system and working conditions for control room operators in compliance with the regulations and the company's internal requirements.

Result
The audit of Sture produced no observations which were characterized as nonconformities, but two factors categorized as improvement points were identified. These concerned:

• collection, processing and use of data
• inadequate follow-up of the alarm system.

What happens now?
The PSA has asked Equinor to provide its assessment of the identified improvement points by 31 January 2022.