On 24 April 2025, an employee fell 4.4 metres during formwork activities in connection with the construction of a concrete building on Melkøya.

“The fact that employees have experienced serious accidents or incidents at our plants makes a strong impression on us. Safety is our number one priority. When serious incidents happen, we have failed.We have now received a thorough investigation report on the Melkøya fall accident, which we will learn from and follow up together with our suppliers,” says Irene Rummelhoff, Equinor’s executive vice president for Marketing, Midstream & Processing.

“During periods of high activity and many employees from different suppliers at our plants, it is important that requirements and standards for safe work reach everyone. We have reviewed procedures and actions for how we together with our suppliers prepare, enable and follow up everyone performing work at our onshore facilities. Our responsibility is to facilitate compliance with requirements for safe work and to develop a strong safety culture, working closely with our suppliers,” says Rummelhoff.

Important investigation findings

The investigation concludes that the incident is not due to one single cause, but that several factors related to the interaction between Equinor, the main contractor Aibel and subcontractor Consto explain why the accident occurred.

The investigation shows that the follow-up has not been good enough as regards competence management and correct execution of work at Equinor and in the supply companies. Not everyone working for Equinor’s subcontractor has felt that they can stop unsafe work, although this is a clear expectation from Equinor.

“We expect everyone to report conditions they perceive as unsafe. We always have time to work safely, with a right and duty to stop unsafe work. Everyone should know this when they work for us. We see that this message has not fully reached everyone, which we take very seriously. Together with the management of the supply companies we have taken steps to improve this in our onboarding and safety training,” says Christina Dreetz, senior vice president for Equinor’s onshore facilities.

A few hours before the accident, Equinor and Aibel decided to stop work at height on the construction site. The message was given to the subcontractor, but did not reach those who carried out the job.The investigation points out that the subcontractor during planning and risk assessment mainly focused on progress. This contributed to the risk associated with the formwork activities at height not being sufficiently understood and managed.

Continued need for improvement

Based on recommendations from the investigation team, efforts are now underway at Equinor to further improve and structure the monitoring of suppliers at the onshore facilities:

• Strengthening of the safety culture together with the suppliers and the conduct of a third-party investigation of the transparency culture on Melkøya.
• Systematic work to ensure improvement and learning at all levels, from planning, to competence management, verification and execution.
• Adjustment of work processes and in the work permit system to make safe work requirements more accessible.

Aibel and Consto have also implemented measures, including clarifying the requirements for various technical teams/disciplines. Competence is being verified to ensure that personnel who use fall protection have received adequate training.

“We will now draw on the investigation report findings and work on the identified measures. We will use the learnings from this work to improve the safety culture at our onshore facilities,” says Dreetz.