Repsol has confirmed it’s finishing up upkeep at its Montrose platform because the asset joins the operator’s record of tasks to cease manufacturing.
The North Sea operator informed Power Voice: “Repsol UK can verify that we’re enterprise a upkeep shutdown of our Montrose facility.”
This comes quickly after Repsol was pressured to cease manufacturing at its Fulmar platform on account of a prohibition discover served by the UK’s Well being and Security Govt (HSE).
The agency has attracted the eye of the protection watchdog following a string of violations, together with lagging upkeep on the Fulmar’s deluge system.
On account of the Fulmar prohibition, Repsol’s Clyde and Auk have additionally “quickly halted”, the corporate defined.
It is because Repsol makes use of Fulmar to move oil and gasoline from the Flyndre, Auk and Clyde fields.
Montrose additionally joins the Bleo Holm floating manufacturing storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which shut down every week in the past.
On this, the agency stated it had “elected to undertake a upkeep shutdown” of the FPSO.
The HSE stated: “We’re conscious that Repsol has stopped manufacturing on Bleo Holm and Yesterday Montrose.
“Though this was not on account of enforcement motion by HSE, we’re conscious of the circumstances of the shutdowns.”
In November the UK regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), handed out its largest-ever high quality to Repsol for “unreasonable follow” which led to a shut-in on the Flyndre area in 2020.
The high quality handed to the North Sea operator totalled £350,000.
Rig Deluge managing director Ian Backyard has beforehand raised issues about Repsol’s North Sea operations, particularly the work carried out on the Fulmar A platform.
Backyard additionally visited Repsol’s Auk and the Montrose platforms, elevating comparable points to these at Fulmar.
After his workforce discovered points with the deluge techniques on the installations, Backyard claimed this was on account of issues corresponding to blocked supply traces and nozzles.
North Sea upkeep backlog
Earlier this 12 months, the HSE stated it had seen “extraordinarily worrying” circumstances of North Sea operators going “backwards” on essential upkeep.
The security-critical upkeep backlog has been flagged as a serious challenge within the North Sea following the COVID pandemic, nonetheless Unite claims that the UK’s security watchdog shouldn’t be doing sufficient to fight the difficulty.
In a latest interview with Power Voice, Unite the Union’s John Boland defined that “deferred upkeep is taking pictures up” as offshore danger assessments argue that work could be carried out much less repeatedly.
“Principally, upkeep isn’t really getting carried out, it’s simply getting delay,” the union’s regional officer stated.
This was in response to the cessation of drilling actions at Ithaca Power’s Captain area after a crane failed.
Following the incident at Ithaca’s wellhead protector platform (WPP), Boland argued that delayed upkeep work “might result in actually unhealthy conditions”.
He added: “We’re clearly involved about this example that’s occurring with the Captain WPP however we’re additionally involved concerning the wider trade.”
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