NOPSEMA issues direction to Triangle Energy

On 24 July 2018, NOPSEMA was notified of an incident at the Triangle Energy (Operations) Pty Ltd’s (Triangle Energy) Cliff Head Alpha offshore platform, 25km south-southwest of Dongara, Western Australia. It was reported that severe weather conditions damaged production-related equipment resulting in a release of produced fluid (95% water 5% crude oil) to the marine environment. At this early stage it is not clear what the exact release volume is, however, early reports indicate the release was low level. Production on the platform has been stopped and there is no risk of the damaged equipment releasing any further fluid.

NOPSEMA immediately deployed inspectors to relay the regulator’s expectations regarding actions to prevent any further loss of fluid to the marine environment and to monitor Triangle Energy's response. NOPSEMA has taken enforcement action against Triangle Energy issuing the company a Direction requiring it to not restart production before it can demonstrate to the regulator that it has isolated the damaged equipment, confirmed the integrity of similar equipment and their interconnecting pipework, restored secondary containment equipment, and developed and implemented effective controls to detect a loss of containment and any subsequent loss of hydrocarbons to the marine environment.

Categories:

• environmental management