Reuters: Regulatory News: Transocean rig upkeep is deficient-Norway watchdog

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Transocean rig upkeep is deficient-Norway watchdog Mar 29th 2012, 16:42 By Walter Gibbs OSLO, March 29 | Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:42pm EDT OSLO, March 29 (Reuters) - Oil driller Transocean has committed "serious violations" of maintenance and safety rules in Norwegian waters, regulatory officials said on Thursday, two years after a Transocean rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico. "We found a lack of maintenance programs for a variety of devices and components," said Oeyvind Midttun, a spokesman for Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA). The authority said Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling company, broke maintenance, fire-prevention and emergency-evacuation codes on its Transocean Arctic rig, one of seven the company operates off Norway. "Serious violations of the regulations have been shown," the PSA said, adding that Transocean's land-based systems for scheduling and following up on repairs and distinguishing between crucial ones and routine ones were also deficient. The authority gave Transocean a deadline of April 26 to plan improvements that must be implemented by Sept. 1 to avoid legal sanctions. "We are reviewing the document and will work with the PSA to resolve all the issues," Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell said. In April 2010 a blowout in BP's Macondo prospect in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico caused an explosion on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig, killing 11 people and polluting much of the gulf with oil. Transocean's semi-submersible Transocean Arctic is at work for Norwegian oil company Statoil in the Tyrihans field in the Norwegian Sea. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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