Equinor with serious infractions to the regulations on occupational safety – E24

For a month and a half from May to July, the PSA supervised Equinor. The purpose was to find out if the company sufficiently allows employees to participate in security work.

The conclusion is not edifying for the Norwegian oil giant: serious violations of the regulations were revealed.

– Employees must be heard on matters that concern them and that are important to risk. This is important and regulations require companies to facilitate this. Equinor has not done enough, says press contact Øyvind Midttun at the PSA.

Must answer before summer

The audit report emphasizes that the PSA has for several years seen significant deficiencies in Equinor’s arrangements for employee engagement through the protective service. According to the audit, Equinor does not reserve enough time for security representatives to perform their duties.

Equinor has been ordered to change its practice before June 1 of next year. In early January, the company must present a detailed plan of how this will happen.

– An order is a legally binding instrument. This is not something the company can choose to do, says Midttun.

– I laughed

According to press contact Morten Eek at Equinor, the company is now in the process of assessing the situation.

– It is clear that we take seriously the receipt of an order in which serious infractions of the regulation are indicated, says Eek.

– This is relatively recent for us, but we will follow up on what the PSA asks us to do. Now we will set a schedule for that job, he says.

– What went wrong?

– We have now received an order emphasizing a breach of the regulations. We take it seriously and we will follow it. In such work, we must be willing to consider whether it is desirable to work in other ways.

According to Eek, Equinor has a security service wherever the company operates, at all levels.

– There are many things that work with the scheme, but with an order like this, it is up to us as a company to address the situation. We will work closely with the security service and unions to propose measures, he believes.

Requires rule change

The Bellona environmental foundation reacts strongly to what appears in the audit report.

– It’s dramatic. Equinor does not learn from its mistakes and clear supervision does not lead to improvement. The security services will be the outstretched arm of the PSA, but this is not working, says Bellona boss Frederic Hauge.

On Wednesday, according to Hauge, the foundation sent a letter to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which is responsible for safety on the shelf. Aftenbladet has seen the letter.

Bellona believes that protective service in the oil industry has deteriorated working conditions for several years. They are now demanding that the ministry introduce special rules, so that security representatives are released from their ordinary job duties at offshore and onshore facilities.

– We have seen a deprofessionalisation of the security service and cuts in training. Now you have to do a proper session and put this in place. Therefore, we propose it as a temporary regime for three years. It’s a tool that can give you quick results, Hauge says.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs had not received the letter on Wednesday afternoon.

– If we receive a letter from them, we will respond to this before responding in the media, says press contact Gro Ørsal.

Equinor does not want to say anything about whether Bellona’s claim could be a possible outcome.

– These evaluations are part of the work that is now beginning. We will see what the state is and if we can find solutions together, but I don’t want to anticipate what the conclusion may be, says Morten Eek.

– Applies to many operators

The Bellona letter is not only based on the latest PSA audit report, but on a broader review of the shelf safety and working conditions of the security services.

The letter refers, among other things, to the fact that the number of serious incident warnings on the shelf has quadrupled in two years, a fact that the PSA believes is very concerning.

Bellona has analyzed the security service in ten operating companies on the Norwegian platform and has studied the audit reports related to this work.

“We would like to point out that serious security service matters are not limited to Equinor, but apply to all investigated operating companies. Norway’s continental shelf has been steadily shrinking and therefore reduced in capacity, “writes the foundation.

Is the cost reduction to blame?

Frederic Hauge believes that the development of the security service is related to cost cuts in the industry in recent years, including the much-discussed Step program that Equnior introduced in 2014.

– The defense service has lost battle after battle due to cutbacks and efficiency. More resources should be invested in this field, not less, says Hauge.

In its audit report, the PSA notes that the oil industry has been characterized by uncertainty in recent years, and that various cost cuts and efficiencies have been implemented.

About Equinor, the audit writes: “Necessary company adjustments to meet business objectives can have consequences for safety and the work environment, and affect the ability to prevent serious accidents.”

– Changes are allowed, but not at the cost of security. So it is important that employees are listened to, also in security work, says Øyvind Midttun at the PSA.

– We respond to perceptions of how we follow security work. Safety is our best investment and we depend on doing things right. But we must be aware that there may be dialects in the compromise between efficiency and safety, responds Morten Eek of Equinor.