Update: North Sea platform still offline after smoke incident

Norwegian state-owned energy giant Equinor has confirmed that the production at an unmanned production platform on a gas field in the North Sea offshore Norway remains shut in, following the appearance of smoke, with no impact on committed gas exports currently anticipated.

The Equinor Emergency Response team was notified of smoke development in a switchgear room at the Sleipner B platform on October 22, which led to the mobilization of DOF’s platform supply vessel (PSV) Skandi Mongstad to the area.

The PSV Skandi Mongstad vessel was joined by Esvagt’s multipurpose ERRV Esvagt Bergen ship, which used seawater to cool down the platform from a distance during the day while a SAR helicopter was expected to fly over the platform with a thermal imaging camera to monitor the situation.

The following day, on October 23, Equinor advised that the emergency vessels Skandi Mongstad and Esvagt Bergen again used seawater to cool down the platform from a distance. According to the Norwegian energy giant, these ships will remain stationed outside the unmanned Sleipner B platform and monitor the situation for as long as necessary, with a SAR helicopter flying over the platform with a thermal imaging camera to keep an eye on things.

“There is no danger to life and health. Production from Sleipner B has been shut down, and the platform is depressurized and without power. The reduction in gas exports resulting from this incident will not have any consequences for the commitments that we have made to our customers,” highlighted Equinor.

The Sleipner area spans three gas and condensate fields – Sleipner Øst, Gungne, and Sleipner Vest – and processes hydrocarbons from several tie-in fields – Sigyn, Volve, Gudrun and gas from Gina Krog – through offshore installations for the processing, drilling, and living quarter platform (Sleipner A), the unmanned production platform (Sleipner B), and the processing and CO2 removal platform (Sleipner T).

The Sleipner B platform is located in the Sleipner Vest area in the North Sea. The operator recently embarked on a power-from-shore quest with the partial electrification of assets on Utsira High, including the Sleipner field center, to slash the carbon emissions footprint from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) by 160,000 tons of CO2 per year.

Equinor’s safety results for Q3 2024 spotlight a surge in safety, alongside a slight rise in injuries toward the end of the quarter. The Norwegian player is putting all the finishing touches in place to begin production from the Johan Castberg field by year-end.