Inspectors Find 'Serious Breaches' at Hammerfest LNG (Update)

(Adds PSA comment at end of para 1)

Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has found "serious breaches" in regulations on handling deviations at Equinor's Hammerfest LNG plant, after investigating a fire that broke out at the facility in late September. It issued the state controlled producer with an improvement order but told NGW that it would be a matter for the police to decide whether to press criminal charges.

The PSA said on November 17 that its audit "revealed that Equinor lacked a systematic approach to utilising and implementing the handling of nonconformities – both those identified earlier by the PSA and company itself has identified." It also identified deficiencies in risk management and technical oversight, capacity and expertise, as well as issues with the design of the plant's emergency lighting system.

The PSA noted that Equinor had failed to resolve issues identified in its previous audits. The safety watchdog has given the company until December 11 2020 to explain how it intends to deal with the breaches and resolve them by June 1 2021.

"We take the feedback in the PSA's inspection report very seriously," Equinor's senior vice president for onshore plants, Grete Haaland said in a company statement. "We will study the feedback carefully and respond to the orders and close the deviations. We have started implementing, or already implemented, measures regarding several of the deviations stated in the PSA's report, and we will work on closing the remaining issues with quality by deadlines agreed with the PSA."

Equinor has warned that the 5.6mn metric ton/year Hammerfest LNG plant may not be ready to resume operations until October 1 2021.