Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. That has focused increased attention on the threat position for the petroleum sector, energy security in Europe and the importance of safe and secure operation on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).
The PSA has regulatory responsibility for safety, the working environment, emergency preparedness and security in Norway’s petroleum industry, and supervises that the companies comply with the regulations and operate in a safe and secure manner.
Norway is making an important contribution in today’s circumstances by maintaining a high level of oil and gas production through continued high regularity in the supply chain. The PSA emphasises the close connection between safety and high regularity.
Threat position
Over time, the Norwegian authorities have addressed the intelligence threat to the petroleum sector and the need to strengthen ICT security.
Links are provided further down this page to important information from the Norwegian government, information and advice from the Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM) and details of the threat position from the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST). Some of these are also in English.
ICT security
The PSA has followed up the industry’s work on ICT security over many years. Its attention is directed at industrial ICT systems and company efforts to protect these.
It is important that each enterprise now checks how they are protecting their systems, their own emergency plans for responding to ICT security incidents relating to both industrial systems and office operations, and security in general.
Furthermore, they should check supplier contracts, contact lists and so forth, and assure themselves that these are correct and will function should such support be required.
The PSA’s regulations refer to recommended guidelines 104 from the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association on information security baseline requirements for process control, safety and support ICT systems.
A set of basic principles for ICT security and underlying measures (in Norwegian only) has been drawn up by the NSM to protect information systems from unauthorised access, damage or misuse.
The PSA also reminds of the duty to notify/report cyber incidents in the same way as other hazards and accidents in the petroleum industry.
Further information
PSA.no
- The PSA commissioned a number of studies in 2018-21 covering various aspects of ICT security – robustness in the petroleum sector. These reports can be found here.
- Report on how to handle insider risk.
- Notification of hazards and accidents.
NSM
- The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has a topic page with links (in Norwegian only) to such subjects as alerts, advice and recommendations.
- Measures for enhanced digital preparedness (in Norwegian only).
- How to alert the NSM (in Norwegian only).
PST
- The PST assesses that the intelligence threat from Russia has increased in Norway (press release, 18 March 2022 – in Norwegian only).
- National threat assessment for 2022.
- Intelligence threat to the Norwegian petroleum sector (in Norwegian only).
Regjeringen.no (government website)
- Topic page with links on the war in Ukraine and its consequences for Norway.
- Attack on Ukraine – Q&A (in Norwegian only).