The first safety management certificate for a multipurpose shuttle tanker (MST) has been awarded to Navion Munin.
Owned by Navion of Stavanger, this vessel is currently producing the Statoil-operated Lufeng oil field in the South China Sea.
The certificate was issued after representatives from the Norwegian Maritime Directorate, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration (NVE) and Det Norske Veritas (DNV) had inspected the ship in early December.
According to the Maritime Directorate, Navion Munin is the best floating installation it has ever inspected. The agency had no improvement suggestions, while the NVE and DNV made a couple of recommendations.
"It's gratifying to be the first in the world to receive this certificate," comments Holger Boge, Statoil's manager at the Lufeng operations office in Shekou, southern China.
He reports that representatives from the Chinese authorities also inspected the MST recently, and made no demands for improvements.
"In their view, Statoil and Navion Munin have set new standards for technology, cleanliness, maintenance and safe operation on the Chinese continental shelf," notes Mr Boge.
This is the first time the Norwegian authorities have inspected Navion Munin since it began producing oil from Lufeng on 27 December last year. The field was officially inaugurated in January.