“In this year’s report, we can see improvement in a few areas, but there remain a number of areas that require increased attention. We are still not seeing the positive trend that we expect,” says Anne Myhrvold, Director General of the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil).

Chemicals

The vast majority of incidents involving acute spills from petroleum activities are chemical spills. The trend in recent years continues to show a rising number of chemical spill incidents.

Oil spills

Since 2013, the number of incidents of acute crude oil spills has varied from year to year, without showing any positive trend. Incidents involving minor spills dominate, but in recent years there have also been larger spills.

The number of serious near-misses that could have resulted in acute oil pollution has been at a stable level in recent years. For 2023, we see a reduction in such near-misses. In particular, well control incidents and HC leaks contribute to this fall.

A major accident can impact people, the environment and economic values. The major accident indicator for acute oil spills shows a stable level with annual variations. The corresponding indicator for injuries to personnel, on the other hand, shows a more obvious positive trend over the last decade. Compiling the results from the various RNNP reports provides a more nuanced picture and can show the area of improvement associated with accident prevention measures.  

Using the reports

Myhrvold expects companies to use the RNNP reports in their continuous improvement efforts.

“The RNNP reports provide information on trends in incidents across the companies. This is how companies can compare themselves to others, ask themselves new safety-related questions, and exploit the learning potential in their own incidents,” she says.