All-out effort needed on land

Risk levels have moved in a negative direction in recent years at the seven onshore facilities which fall within Havtil's area of responsibility.
The survey of trends in risk level in the petroleum sector (RNNP) is carried out annually by the authority.
Its measurements also began on land in 2004, when Havtil assumed responsibility for Norway’s oil and gas facilities there. The backward trend seen for some time was confirmed by the RNNP results unveiled in 2024.
Increased
The survey shows that the number of incidents with a major accident potential on land has risen in recent years, in contrast to the trend on the NCS. That is viewed as a cause for concern.
“Onshore facilities have seen a negative trend for several years,” Havtil director general Anne Myhrvold observed when the results was published.
“We saw this continue in 2023, with a marked increase for incidents with major accident potential and a continued reversal in terms of personal injury risk. This isn’t good enough.”
The RNNP figures revealed a rise in hydrocarbon leaks at onshore facilities over the four years up to and including 2023. These varied in size and potential seriousness.
Serious personal injuries were also high in 2023 at a total of 15, while the frequency of such incidents climbed from 1.33 per million working hours in 2022 to 1.42.
Following up
Myhrvold believes that the operators of the land plants should be following up why incidents with an inherent major accident potential have failed to decline for 10 years despite the countermeasures taken. After so much time, improvements are expected.
Myhrvold wants the operators to ask themselves several questions, including whether they are addressing these challenges well enough.
“Are they prioritising their resources correctly, working well enough as an industry and with contractors, and taking advantage of potential lessons from gains made offshore – where the trend has been in the opposite direction?
“We also see with concern that the identified need for corrective maintenance is rising both offshore and on land. Inadequate maintenance can be linked to higher accident risk. It’s important that the industry takes this seriously.”
Challenges
Norway’s seven onshore petroleum plants differ in size and design, and face specific challenges in terms of risk. These differences are reflected in the RNNP figures. Some facilities have many incidents, others few.
The RNNP measures trends in risk levels for the industry as a whole. This means that individual plants and installations are not identified in the survey reports.
Myhrvold nevertheless emphasises that figures for each facility are available to their operators so that they can use them in their own improvement efforts.
“The operators are well aware of which plants show negative trends,” she says. “We expect them to use their own figures and resources with RNNP data, and to work actively and purposefully to reverse the trend we’ve seen in recent years.”
RNNP figures for 2024 will be presented on 20 March 2025.
Read more: RNNP 2023: Good results offshore, negative trend on land
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