Snorre Verification And Testing
Authors: Plummer F.B. , Haslerud Bjørn , Carlsen Svein 
Published: October 2008

A major offshore project with a high content of new technology requires a systematic, well-documented approach to assure quality. This paper provides a brief overview of the Snorre Quality Assurance system and then highlights the specific approaches for: managing technical risks, and verifying that work conforms to requirements

As a part of the verification programme a number of major tests were carried out during the construction and commissioning phases. The experience from these tests is summarized.

SNORRE QUALITY ASSURANCE PRINCIPLES

The Snorre project has taken a rather broad view of quality assurance (QA) to make sure that all aspects of the project are taken under the quality umbrella. The QA department is the overall steward of the program, but engineering, construction sub-projects and the other functional departments participate as well. The main principles are summarized below.

Documented Set of Systems and Procedures

- A good starting point for a project with the size and complexity of Snorre is a documented set of systems and procedures. During the pre-project phase the evaluation team was organized like and functioned like a project team. This gave the opportunity to implement and "fine-tune" the procedures prior to the project's start.

Reliance on Contractor's QA Systems

- This is probably the cornerstone principle. Contractors and vendors must take the full responsibility for carrying out and verifying their own work. They must properly understand, and be prepared for the work they are undertaking and they must have the competence and financial strength to carry it out. If this principle is not observed across the board, the project will have trouble maintaining an adequate level of quality.

Having said that, however, the Project Team must ensure, in a variety of ways, that the contractor's systems are functioning and that requirements are met. These various measures are outlined below and in subsequent parts of this paper.

Planned (but flexible) Audit Programme

- A well planned, but flexible, audit programme gives management insight into the QA progress. Basically, the Quality Assurance and Engineering Departments have an audit responsibility. The project also has a financial audit function which is administered by the Quality Assurance Manager. However, financial audit is beyond the scope of this current paper. As a part of their verification programmes, other functional departments carried out various reviews which resembled audits. Examples are contract administration reviews and document administration verifications. Audits will be discussed in more detail below.

Technical Risk Management Programme

- Technical risk management can help to avoid the unwanted surprises associated with implementing new technology. A later section is devoted to this topic. The risk management programme identifies the areas where verification is needed.

Extensive Verification and Testing

- A main principle on the Snorre Project is to carry out more verification than normal. This was found to be a cost-effective way of finding the problems early. The project also took advantage of the seven month inshore hook-up and commissioning period to test major systems. This is discussed later, as well.