The safety and security of our people, and integrity of our operations, is our top priority. We believe that all accidents related to people, environment and assets can be prevented.
We focus on preventing personal injuries, work related illness and major accidents, and the goal of zero injuries has become part of how we think and work, with a strong focus on continuous improvement.
We wish to learn as much as possible from incidents
SIF, serious incident frequency, at the end of the third quarter of 2024 (12-month average)
TRIF, total recordable incident frequency, at the end of the third quarter of 2024 (12-month average)
Oil & gas leakages, total at the end of the third quarter of 2024 (last 12 months)
Equinor’s 2023 safety results show an overall positive trend at the end of the year.
We have clear and firm expectations to record and follow up all incidents. To identify and mitigate root causes, the most serious incidents are always investigated to ensure learning.
The Serious Incident Frequency (SIF) indicator measures the number of actual and potential unintentional serious incidents per million working hours. The Total Recordable Injury Frequency (TRIF) indicator measures the number of fatalities, lost-time injuries, and medical treatment injuries per million working hours.
In Equinor, we aim to continuously develop a proactive culture where safety and security are incorporated into everything we do.
We are committed to having a proactive safety culture to prevent major accidents. It starts at top-level leadership and requires commitment and capabilities throughout the organization. Our approach is founded on the Human and Organizational Principles (HOP).
Our strategic focus on being “Always safe” is guided by our commitment to prevent harm to people, to the environment and the communities we are a part of.
Safety, security and sustainability are at the very core of everything we do. Our strategy – safe operation, high value creation and low carbon emissions – means in practice that we, as a broad energy company, must deliver long-term value creation in the transition to the low-carbon society of the future.
A key component in this work is being long-term committed to a few main priority areas. We have defined companywide priorities to ensure harmonization and an aligned approach to our strategy.
The “Annual wheel” defines priority topics and associated actions to ensure a stronger common focus on main challenges. We share our main topics with the industry. The main quarterly topics are major accident prevention, personnel injuries, line of fire, and health/working environment.
Learning and follow-up after incidents is key to enhance safety and security culture and working closely with our peers and suppliers is crucial to our overall performance.
Industry collaboration
The purpose of collaboration is to strengthen the industry’s safety and security culture and work together towards zero major accidents and avoid injuries and undesirable incidents in our daily work.
An arena for sharing and learning from events and to facilitate stronger collaboration was established in 2020. The initiative is called “Always safe”.
We have agreed upon following the “Lifesaving rules” and to prioritise the same measures in the “Annual Wheel”.
A good working environment is essential to employee well-being and health, operational safety, and organizational success. An inclusive, safe, and engaging working environment is an attractive place to work and develop, and a source for collaborative and creative energy. Proactive management of health and working environment risks are therefore important to protect our people from harmful exposure, physically as well as mentally.
In Equinor, security is an organisational capability that enables corporate objectives by safeguarding our people, assets and operations.
Good security begins with the behaviour and actions of each and every one of us – how we think and act each day at work or at home. By being aware of, and thinking through, our daily routines and actions, all employees contribute to our own and Equinor’s security.
We emphasise that security is everybody’s responsibility. We all have to understand the risks we face, and act to ensure we are secure. Leaders are accountable for protecting our people and business by continuously identifying, understanding and acting to reduce security risks. All employees play a role in being vigilant, complying with security requirements at all times, and reporting incidents and concerns.
The ability to keep our people, assets and operations secure from malicious threats is a key factor in maintaining our licence to operate and being a successful business. Failure to meet security expectations could result in injury to our people, damage to our facilities, loss of production or information, or in the worst case, loss of life.
As a company, we are faced with complex security threats – across cyber, physical and personnel disciplines. A security policy within the management system provides guidance in the approach, commitment and how we work with holistic security risk management.
Physical security measures are designed to safeguard personnel, prevent unauthorised access to facilities, equipment, and documents; and to safeguard against eavesdropping, sabotage, damage, and theft.
Cyber and information security is the process of protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. We have a risk-based approach to cyber and information security focusing on people, process and technology.
Personnel security protects against those who exploit their legitimate access to our assets for unauthorized purposes.
Equinor is prepared to respond to hazards, incidents, and major security threats to prevent or reduce loss, damage, injuries or other consequences to people, the environment and assets, production and operations, information, financial assets and the group's reputation.
Our business continuity management is focusing on the medium- and long-term consequences and derived actions to Equinor’s capability to ensure continuity and flow assurance when a business disruptive situation occurs.
The Corporate Security and Crisis Management unit is responsible for setting strategic direction and maintaining Equinor’s corporate framework on crisis and business continuity management.
We have company-wide management systems that describe protocols and response governance for emergency response and business continuity management. Our management systems incorporate industry good practices, Equinor requirements, national requirements and ISO standards.
The management systems set requirements for conducting analysis, how to develop and design response plans and for implementing the emergency response plans.
The response organisations train and exercise frequently and are evaluated on a regular basis.
A global incident management assist team that consists of highly competent and specially trained personnel from all over the company is ready to assist and support in emergency response situations all over the world.
Equinor protects information created by us, or given to us, to ensure appropriate confidentiality and integrity. Therefore, the security of our information systems is of paramount importance to us.
Our values embody the spirit and energy of Equinor at its best. They help us set direction, and they guide our decisions, actions and the way we interact with others. Our values express the ideals we strive to live up to every day.
Our leaders are expected to drive the development of a strong safety culture founded on our values and our facilities must be well maintained at all times and procedures for safe operations must be in place.
We focus on preventing personal injuries, work related illness and major accidents, and the goal of zero injuries has become part of how we think and work, with a strong focus on continuous improvement.
At Equinor, how we deliver is just as important as what we deliver.
Our emergency response organisation is always in a state of readiness, around the clock, 365 days a year. The response structure consists of Crisis Management, Incident Management and Emergency Response.
If an incident occurs, we will adhere to the PEAR principle — People, Environment, Asset and Reputation.
The CMT has a strategic function and implements necessary strategic actions to minimise consequences for the company, and maintains contact with corporate management, customers and stakeholders.
The IMT Provides operational guidance to the ERT and coordinate resources and personnel. Responsible for Oil Spill Response and handling of personnel.
The Emergency Response Team on the accident site conducts rescue and response, on-scene combating and cooperates with the local rescue services.
Number of serious HSE accidents and near misses per million hours worked. Near misses are incidents with no actual consequences but with a serious potential.
Number of serious HSE accidents per million hours worked.
Number of personal injuries per million hours worked.
Number of oil-/gas leakages with a leakage rate above 0,1 kg/second