Results from RNNP 2024 show that a lot of corrective maintenance has failed to be carried out, both at the facilities on the shelf and onshore. Havtil’s Director General is asking the industry to address this.

“RNNP shows good results in many areas, including for hydrocarbon leaks and well control incidents, but improvements are still needed. And when it comes to the amount of unperformed corrective maintenance, there’s cause for concern. Here I believe the companies must reinforce their efforts,” says Myhrvold, who emphasises that the Norwegian petroleum activities have a long time horizon, and that the infrastructure must therefore be well maintained.

“The regulations define clear requirements: each individual participant is responsible for regulatory compliance and ensuring systematic HSE efforts, so as to reduce the risk of unwanted incidents and major accidents. The management and performance of maintenance are key to this.

We know that defective or deficient maintenance has often proved to be a contributory cause of major accidents. The maintenance of safety-critical equipment is especially important and must be given priority”, she says.

“My message is a simple one: good maintenance is about good management and the correct prioritisation. Companies must allocate sufficient resources for maintenance, and ensure that the job is done safely”, says Myhrvold, who encourages the industry to make active use of the RNNP results in its improvement work.

“The in-depth study in RNNP and other analyses provide new knowledge about maintenance and its performance. The companies must use this work to make progress in maintenance management”, asserts Havtil’s Director General.

Maintenance – the Norwegian shelf

The maintenance data from RNNP 2024 show that, overall, a significant number of hours of identified corrective maintenance were unperformed at 31.12.2024, approximately 8.5 per cent more in 2024 than in 2023. The trend over the past four years is negative.

Overall, there are few hours of backlog in preventive maintenance, but a number of facilities have failed to perform HSE-critical maintenance in accordance with their own deadlines. The backlog is at the same level as in 2023.

The number of hours of total outstanding corrective maintenance, i.e. corrective maintenance not performed by the deadline, was at approximately the same level in 2024 as in recent years, but the total outstanding HSE-critical corrective maintenance showed an increase in 2024.  

Mobile facilities show large variations in backlogs, with several having failed to perform HSE-critical maintenance in accordance with their own deadlines. 

Maintenance – onshore facilities

At the onshore facilities, the same negative trend in the amount of unperformed corrective maintenance is apparent. Overall, there is a negative trend, with smaller annual variations over the years. The level in 2024 was approximately 11 per cent higher than in 2023.

The backlog in preventive maintenance grew in 2024. One facility had a significant backlog, two had moderate ones, and three had a few hours.

There has been a reduction in the backlog of total HSE-critical preventive maintenance in recent years. There remains a lot of corrective maintenance that has been identified but not performed.

In-depth study: Maintenance

For RNNP 2024, we conducted an in-depth study to see if there is any correlation between the need to perform corrective maintenance and the number of incidents, as well as the employees’ experience of whether deficient maintenance compromised safety.

The survey included fixed facilities on the Norwegian shelf and the onshore facilities. A correlation was identified between increasing (the shelf) or excessive (onshore) corrective maintenance and both the number of incidents and the employees’ experience of deficient maintenance and safety. The correlation shows that facilities with an increasing trend in identified corrective maintenance and facilities with excessive identified corrective maintenance have more incidents than expected and that employees are increasingly of the view that deficient maintenance compromises safety.

RNNP 2024 – other areas

Below is a brief summary of other key results in RNNP 2024:

(Links to the RNNP reports can be found at the bottom of the page.)

Major accident risk

In 2024, there were no accidents that resulted in fatality in Havtil's administrative area. As in 2023, nor were there any exceptionally serious major-accident near-misses assessed as having the potential for a large number of fatalities. 

Major accident risk on the NCS

On the Norwegian continental shelf, the number of near-misses with major accident potential has been at a stable level since 2013, with around 30 such incidents per year. This level is significantly lower than the peak in 2002 when there were 120 incidents. In 2024, there were 32 near-misses with major accident potential. This is at the same level as in the last nine years. When the number of incidents is normalised against working hours, the frequency in 2024 is within the expected range. 

Five non-ignited hydrocarbon leaks at a rate above 0.1 kg/s were recorded in 2024 (four in 2023), with all of the leaks in the category 0.1-1 kg/s.

In 2024, there were 14 well control incidents, all of them in the lowest risk category.

In 2024, nine instances of damage to structures and maritime systems that meet the damage criteria used in RNNP were recorded. This is an increase from 2023 (three incidents). 

Major accident total indicator

In 2024, the total indicator for major accidents is higher than it was in 2023. The total indicator, where all the near-misses are weighted against their inherent accident potential, has shown an underlying positive trend over time. Since particularly serious incidents are assigned a relatively high risk weighting, the annual variation in the total indicator is large, but the positive trend is nevertheless clear.

The total indicator gives us a picture of the industry’s ability to affect and manage a range of risk-related factors. The underlying positive trend in the indicator shows that, over time, the industry has got better at managing factors that affect risk. The stable levels of recent years indicate that achieving systematic improvements may be more challenging.

Major accident risk at the onshore facilities

Six near-misses with inherent major accident potential were reported by the seven onshore facilities in 2024 (compared to 23 in 2023). Of these, five were unignited hydrocarbon leaks and one was in the category of other fires (not a process fire). The number of unignited hydrocarbon leaks in 2024 was the lowest reported since 2012.

(In the years 2020 to 2023, a marked increase in the number of hydrocarbon leaks was recorded at the onshore facilities. It has turned out that some of this increase was due to misreporting by the industry, with the inclusion in the statistics of incidents that did not meet the RNNP criteria. In particular, this applies to leaks of fluids at a rate of less than 0.1 kg/s.)

For other near-miss incidents (without inherent major accident potential), there was a reduction in 2024 compared to 2023. This reduction was greatest within crane and lifting incidents.

Personal injuries and accidents

There were no fatal accidents on the Norwegian continental shelf in 2024.

In 2024, 223 reportable personal injuries were recorded on the NCS. In 2023, 185 such injuries were reported. 21 of the injuries were classified as serious in 2024 against 25 in 2023. The rate of serious personal injuries per million working hours dropped to 0.52 in 2024. In 2024, the injury rate was within the expected level based on the ten preceding years. 

In 2024, a total of 81 personal injuries were reported at the onshore facilities, of which 11 met the criteria for serious injury. The corresponding number of serious injuries in 2023 was 15.

The injury rate at the onshore facilities in 2024 was one serious injury per million working hours. There is variation in the rates between the onshore facilities.