Troll A, a dedicated rig to achieve strict HSE requirements
Authors: Frederiks J.C.C.H. 
Published: October 2008

On Troll A in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, joined forces of operator and contractor companies have implemented operator's policy's with respect to HSE mattersand surpassed government regulations, which are among the world's most stringent. With respect to safety, emphasis is placed on how automated pipehandling equipment, operating procedures and structured communication, have contributed to improve safety.

With respect to environmental matters, it is demonstrated that challenging goal-setting and use of simple equipment, have a positive effect towards minimising waste whilemaintaining hole quality and controlling expenditure.

Introduction

The world requires and is trending towards very safe and very clean well operations. Therefore, if it would be up to the public, a 'license to operate' will in the near future only begiven to companies which manage to demonstrate their utmost effort to reduce the number of safety and environment related incidents. Statement of visions and policy's of both operators on Troll A already contain this message.

Norske Shell as development operator and Statoil as production operator have implemented those policy's with respect to HSE matters when building and operating the TrollA drilling rig. By building a highly technical advanced rig with almost all remotely operated drilling equipment and implementing measures to prevent accidents to personnel and environment when operating, the policy "to conduct activities in such a way as to take foremost account to the health andsafety of our drilling personnel and to give proper regard to the conservation of the environment" has been adherred to.

From the starting point of full compliance with legislative requirements, the Troll A operators have pursued this policy as to the best technical know how existing at the moment of building the Troll A rig.

In Norway the NPD (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate)and the SFT (state pollution control authority) have established requirements. They leave it up to the operator todecide themselves how to meet these requirements. The NPD verifies if the requirements are met through audits on operators internal systems and reviews of safety records, discharge records and other incidents.

Government regulations

Government regulations in Norway are among the world's most stringent. Some of them, such as sufficient barriersduring drilling (BOP system, casing, drilling fluids), tank capacity, adequate storage capacity for weighing chemicals like baryte, etc., can be implemented during the construction phase and are considered to be followed up and closed. Others are more difficult to adhere to. For example the requirement relating to work areas, which reads as follows: "Work areas in connection with drilling and well activities shall be arranged so as to ensure totally adequate safety for personnel and operations. Critical work processes or processes with particular workload shall be analysed for the purpose ofachieving simplifications of the process, reduce risk for and workload on personnel and to ensure adequate execution of the work operations."

Based on this requirement it was decided to build a remotely controlled pipe handling system and a remotely controlled mud mixing system.