The audit found “serious breaches” after the Melkøya fire – E24

Equinor writes on their website that they are in the process of rectifying the conditions targeted by the audit.

On September 28, a dramatic fire broke out at the Melkøya liquefied gas (LNG) plant on the outskirts of Hammerfest.

The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority now orders Equinor to correct various deviations and points of improvement at the plant. This applies to errors that were found in an inspection that took place the week before the plant fire.

“We have monitored Equinor for major accidents and electrical installations at the Hammerfest LNG ground facility. The audit identified serious violations of the regulations regarding the treatment of non-conformities and now we have given an order to the company ”, writes the PSA.

The audit has also previously sounded the alarm on the facility. For example, the PSA as early as 2012 pointed out errors in fire safety in Melkøya.

Read the message from the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority here Equinor responds to the Authority’s order

Follow up on old discrepancies

Equinor has previously received verbal information from the PSA that they had not fixed any discrepancies detected by an audit in 2017.

The PSA now confirms that during inspections in 2017, challenges were encountered with the ability of qualified personnel to perform maintenance on electrical systems. In an audit this fall, the audit found similar challenges for the technical support department within the electrical and instrument disciplines.

Equinor says in a statement that the company is in the process of improving conditions.

– We take the comments in the PSA inspection report very seriously, says Equinor’s Director of Ground Facilities Grete B. Haaland.

– We will carefully review the comments and respond to the requests and close the discrepancies. We have started or already implemented measures for several of the deviations that the PSA points out in the report, and we will work to close what remains with quality within the deadlines agreed with the PSA, he says.

The tracking system is missing

The Authority concludes in its audit report that Equinor has not adopted a systematic approach on how to handle non-conformities.

This applies both to the deviations that the PSA has identified above and to the conditions that Equinor itself has identified.

“We registered, among other things, that several issues that had been previously indicated by the PSA, and that Equinor has reported must be corrected, were not corrected or followed up in accordance with the response. The impression was that the company did not adequately address or compensate for identified deficiencies / deviations pending permanent rectification, ”the audit writes.

It is clear to the manager of the Melkøya plant that the work of correcting the errors is now in full swing.

– Hammerfest LNG employees work hard every day to ensure safe operation, follow through on action, and implement facility improvements. Now our employees are working to bring the plant back into production safely after the damage resulting from the September fire, says plant manager Andreas Sandvik.

– The PSA audit report documents that some deviations have not been followed well enough, and we will now review and improve our systems and processes. We will work with employees on this in the subsequent follow-up to the audit report.