Oil spill incidents
The RNNP AU report shows that the number of incidents of acute crude oil spills has fallen in the period 2001-2019. The same is true of near-misses that could have resulted in acute pollution.
This downward trend in the number of incidents and near-misses is not reflected in assessments of the degree of severity. In 2019 there was an increase in the annual volume of spills, due to an incident involving a major oil spill in the North Sea.
"There is still a need to discuss the impact of the barriers on preventing major acute crude oil spills and stopping incidents from progressing. This applies in all petroleum activities, above and below the surface, manned and unmanned," says Anne Myhrvold, Director General of the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway.
Barents Sea
During the period 2013-2019, there was much activity in the Barents Sea compared to previous years. The data from RNNP AU is currently insufficient to indicate trends over time for this sea area or for comparison with other sea areas. However, the data provides no grounds for assuming that the situation in the Barents Sea is different from elsewhere on the NCS.
Downward trend in chemical spills
The vast majority of acute spills from petroleum activities are chemical spills and more than 25 per cent of these are larger than one cubic metre. There has been a downward trend in the number of chemical spills since 2014. There has been an upward trend in the annual volume of chemical spills since 2014. There were more incidents of major chemical spills in the period 2014 to 2018 than in the years 2005 to 2014.
In 2019, we saw a significant reduction in the annual volume of chemical spills. It is too early to say whether this is a trend that reflects specific preventive actions by the participants.
In 2016, 2018 and 2019, we saw a lower proportion of incidents of spills greater than 1 cubic metre. It remains to be seen whether this is a trend that reflects specific actions by the participants focused on impact reduction.
“A downward trend does not obviate continued focus. Safety requires continuous awareness and depends on the actions we take to prevent incidents and accidents at all times and over time”, says Myhrvold.