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The 1991 agreement between Norway and France on who was responsible for the Alexander L. Kielland accident in 1980 has now been traced to a file. This shows that Norway waived all claims against the French shipyard for a small amount, writes Stavanger Aftenblad.
Norway originally demanded NOK 700 million in compensation from the French shipyard CFEM in Dunkirk, which built the platform in 1976. After ten years of fighting, Norway came away with only NOK 6.5 million in the deal.
The Norwegian Commission of Inquiry concluded in 1981 that the responsibility for the accident was a welding error by the French shipyard. The French established their own commission, which in 1985 concluded that it was not weld failure that caused the Kielland disaster.
– Although we could still believe that we were right, we realized that we would not be successful in the French legal system. So it was better to accept a bad settlement than risk losing in court, says lawyer Georg Scheel, who represented Norwegian interests until the settlement, to Aftenbladet.
The Auditor General’s Office announced in January this year that they would re-review the Alexander Kielland case. The report is expected this fall.
The Alexander L. Kielland platform capsized and crashed on March 27, 1980. 123 men were killed in the worst industrial accident in Norwegian history. 69 survived.
