Equinor second quarter 2021 safety performance

“We take it seriously that the number of personal injuries is developing in the wrong direction. Nobody must be injured while working for us. In addition, we do not see any improvement in the number of serious incidents. Consequently, we keep focusing on major accidents while working towards turning the personal injury development,” says Jannicke Nilsson, executive vice president for Safety, Security and Sustainability (SSU).

The twelve-month average serious incident frequency, SIF (number of serious incidents per million hours worked), is 0.5 at the end of June, the same level that we saw at the end of 2020. SIF includes both incidents with an actual serious consequence (injury) and incidents with a serious potential. Nine serious incidents were recorded in the second quarter this year, compared to 12 serious incidents in the same period in 2020.

The twelve-month average total recordable incident frequency, TRIF (number of personal injuries with medical treatment per million hours worked) is 2.5, compared to 2.3 at the end of 2020. A total of 90 injuries have been recorded in the second quarter, compared to 53 injuries in the second quarter of 2020.

The SIF and TRIF figures are based on 32.9 million working hours in the second quarter of 2021, compared to 29.6 million working hours in the second quarter of 2020.

Four hydrocarbon leaks (oil and gas leaks with a leak rate exceeding 0.1kg/second) have been recorded so far this year. One gas leak has been recorded in the second quarter, and no serious well incidents.

Learning from and together with others
Reporting to the chief executive officer, Safety, Security and Sustainability was established as a new functional area when Equinor’s organizational change was implemented on 1 June. This was done to strengthen the safety work and ensure a holistic perspective by working towards preventing harm to people, the environment, and the communities Equinor is part of.

“We are learning from others, and we are learning together with others. A common understanding of the risk picture is key, both internally in a big company, and in our collaboration with other people. Sharing safety results and experience is a central part of this work, as well as close dialogue with authorities and employee representatives,” says Nilsson.

That is also the background for the industrial collaboration with other operators and suppliers. The purpose of the collaboration is to strengthen the industry’s safety culture to avoid injuries, undesirable incidents and major accidents.

One example is our collaboration with Aker BP and Vår Energi on learning packages for the industry addressing different topics during the year, such as avoiding personal injuries, working safely at height, and preventing dropped objects. Another example is the industry’s “life-saving rules” which is a collaboration between Equinor and suppliers.

“Learning packages and rules are not enough however, we must ensure that good premises – such as technology, work processes and organizational conditions – are in place to enhance the opportunities for pursuing safe work. This is a way of thinking that we will emphasize even stronger going forward,” says Nilsson.

Related pages and downloads