Norway It was on Monday 28 September 2020 that a major fire broke out in Equinor’s LNG plant on Melkøya in Hammerfest. Photo: Bjarne Halvorsen / NTB Read more Close
NTB
Aug 4 2023 13:03 – Updated 4 Aug. 2023 13:05
The police have given Equinor a fine of NOK 130 million after the fire at the LNG plant on Melkøya in Hammerfest in September 2020.
– By order of the state attorney, we have presented a proposal to Equinor of 130 million, informs the prosecution officer Lisa Moon Sneve in the Finnmark Police District to TU.
It was on Monday 28 September 2020 that a major fire broke out in Equinor’s LNG plant on Melkøya in Hammerfest. The fire caused the facility to be closed and not reopened until May 2022. During this period, gas production at the Snøhvit field was also halted.
Several deviations
Shortly after the accident, Equinor said that the Petroleum Safety Authority found several deviations and insufficient follow-up of measures at Equinor’s petroleum plant on Melkøya only weeks before the serious fire on 28 September.
Equinor states that the Petroleum Safety Authority carried out an electrical and major accident inspection at the plant in the week before the incident. Here, the inspection observed several measures and deviations that had not been satisfactorily followed up by Equinor since the same type of inspection was carried out in 2017.
Four days before the fire
Equinor received this information on 24 September, four days before the fire, which is described as “the most serious incident in Norwegian petroleum history” by the Petroleum Safety Authority.
In the investigation report, the Petroleum Safety Authority wrote that the filters where the fire started had not been changed since 2015 and were full of insects.
After an oil leak in 2019, it was recommended to change the filter, but that did not happen.
The Petroleum Safety Authority also pointed to understaffing and a large turnover of employees at the facility.
Lack of systematic approach
According to the Petroleum Safety Authority, Equinor lacked a systematic approach to the use and execution of non-conformance processing.
“This includes both deviations uncovered by Ptil in the past and conditions that Equinor itself has identified”, writes Ptil on its website on Tuesday.
“We noted, among other things, that several matters which had previously been pointed out by Ptil, and which Equinor had reported back as being rectified, had not been corrected or followed up in accordance with the response”, it continues.
2023-08-04 11:03:47
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