The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has announced this week that it is to undertake a new inspection programme of oil and gas installations in the North Sea, known as the Ageing and Life Extension Inspection Programme (also known as Key Programme 4 or "KP4").
After around 40 years of oil and gas production, many offshore installations have now exceeded their original life expectancy. The offshore environment can be extremely tough on an installation. However, with increased technology, many installations are expected to remain operational for the foreseeable future, and it is feared that these installations may struggle to maintain the required degree of asset integrity in the years to come.
The new inspection programme was announced at a seminar for senior industry managers, unions and policy makers in Aberdeen on Wednesday 28 July, by the head of the HSE's Offshore Division, Steve Walker. Mr Walker said that "the issue of ageing installation is not a new one...ageing installations run the risk of deterioration, which can have serious consequences for installation and asset integrity. This is not acceptable. The safety of 28,000 workers is dependant on systems and structures being in good working order now and in the future".
The new programme will build on the work undertaken previously in the HSE's Key Programme 3 initiative, which focused more on short-term asset integrity. The objectives of Key Programme 4 are:
- to identify duty holders' approaches to the management of the risks to asset integrity associated with ageing and life extension;
- to raise awareness of the need for specific consideration of ageing issues as a distinct activity within the asset integrity management process;
- to enforce an appropriate programme of remedial action where necessary; and
- to work with the offshore industry to establish a common approach to the management of ageing installations.
Key Programme 4 will also include the development of technical information for operators on ageing installations covering the areas of structural and process plant integrity, fire and explosion, and electrical and control systems. The initiative is to run until September 2013.
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
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The original publication date for this article was 30/07/2010.
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