• Notice of order was sent to Equinor on 19 June 2025.
  • The order was given on 20 June 2025.

In the period 17 June 2024 to 13 June 2025, on three occasions, symptoms were recorded among employees after performing work activities in area L201 in connection with the Snøhvit future project at Hammerfest LNG.

Following an incident on 19 June 2024, it was recorded that a total of 17 people visited an emergency room after the shift ended. Following an incident on 9 April 2025, a further seven people were recorded as having symptoms after performing work in the same area. On 13 June 2025, a similar incident occurred in which three people experienced symptoms after working in this area.

In light of these incidents, Equinor decided to halt all activity in L201, in order to assess the prudence of further work.

We are aware that Equinor has prepared criteria for resumption of work in L201. The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) does not consider these criteria to be sufficient to document the activities as fully prudent.

On this basis, we have given Equinor the following order:

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, Equinor is ordered to:   

Ensure that work in the area of L201 is fully prudent, based both on an individual and an overall assessment of all factors of relevance for planning and implementation of the activities as regards health, safety and the environment, with reference to the Framework Regulations, section 10 concerning prudent activities; see the Management Regulations, section 11 concerning the basis for making decisions and decision criteria, section 16 concerning general requirements for analyses and section 18 concerning working environment analysis.

This includes:

- Reviewing and quality-assuring Equinor’s own list of measures, presented at the meeting of 16 June 2025 – “Updating of Hammerfest LNG”.

- Ensuring the involvement of relevant specialist expertise in Equinor to:

  • Assess whether necessary and adequate analyses of work-site exposure conditions have been performed.
  • Ensure that any additional necessary analyses of exposure conditions are performed.
  • Summarise and conclude based on the results of the analyses.

- Ensuring that the conclusion from the analyses is used by Equinor, the contractor companies involved and their safety services to assess the prudence of the activities.

Equinor shall submit its assessments of the prudence of the activities to Havtil before the work is resumed, and Havtil shall be notified when the order has been complied with.