Equinor has started an internal investigation into the fire at the Hammerfest LNG plant on Melkoya Island in northern Norway on Sept. 28 and is looking into findings pointed out by the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) in a recent inspection (OGJ Online, Sept. 28, 2020).
Both the PSA and Equinor are investigating the incident to clarify the course of events and to find triggering and underlying causes and the police is also investigating the incident.
Equinor had initiated an investigation of a gas leak that occurred roughly 2 weeks ago, Equinor said Oct. 2. The operator said while there is no indication of a connection, it will investigate whether the fire can in any way be related to the leak. The investigation also will seek to clarify if a Sept. 28 power outage in Hammerfest was related to the fire.
Equinor has established a separate project to assess the condition of the plant and take measures to ensure a safe start-up in due course. No timeline was given.
"We are now working to map the extent of damages after the fire and will then thoroughly review the technical integrity of the facility. Safety comes first, and we will use the time we need to ensure a safe start-up. It is still too early to say when the operations can resume," said Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice-president of marketing, midstream, and processing at Equinor.
In the week before the incident, the PSA carried out an inspection of electric systems and major accident preparedness at the plant, and on Sept. 24, the PSA verbally shared a first summary after the inspection. The PSA said it had observed that some items had not been satisfactorily followed up by Equinor since the same type of audit was last carried out in 2017, and that incorrect registrations have been made in the system used for follow up.
"Equinor takes the PSA’s feedback seriously and has already started examining the basis for the findings to address pending items while we wait for the PSA’s final report from the inspection. We will also evaluate whether the findings are isolated cases or if there is a need to address routines and systems," Rummelhoff said.
