Petroleum Safety Authority Norway Thursday said failure to allocate clear responsibilities, lack of risk understanding and design shortcomings in the loading system were among the underlying causes of the break in the Statfjord A loading hose operated by StatoilHydro on December 12, according to a report by the authority, the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority and the Norwegian Coastal Administration.
StatoilHydro has been notified that the PSA intends to issue an order in the wake of the oil spill, which is the second-largest in Norwegian petroleum history. The breach in the loading hose led to 77 500 barrels of crude oil being pumped into the sea.
The notification requires an assessment of all the observations in the report and the identification of proposed improvements with timetables for their implementation.
According to the investigation report the emergency response organization was not mobilized at the time of the incident, even though StatoilHydro had sufficient information to do so soon after reports of oil in the sea were received.
The report also concluded that a lack of responsibility for the loading system in StatoilHydro over lengthy periods contributed to a failure to make an overall assessment of this equipment. Critical conditions arising from the division of responsibility for the loading system had not been adequately identified by StatoilHydro, it said.
The report also said changes had been made to the loading system without an analysis being carried out of the overall risk these presented and that technical and discipline responsibility for the loading system in Statfjord's operations organisation remained unclarified for lengthy periods.
It also said that the established inspection routines did not ensure that signs of wear and tear on the hydraulic hose were detected. Inadequate maintenance management meant in part that the replacement program was not followed up, and that wear damage to the hydraulic hose was not exposed, the report concluded.