Equinor has reported its 2025 safety results, which show a generally positive trend at the end of the year despite a fatal accident at its refinery in Mongstad, Norway.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, the serious incident frequency per million hours worked was 0.21, down from 0.3 at the end of 2024, the company reported. Serious personal injuries are also included in the serious incident statistics.
“We’ve achieved an improvement of more than 30% in the frequency of serious incidents in a single year,” said Camilla Salthe, Equinor’s executive vice president for safety, security, and sustainability. “This inspires us to keep working alongside partners and suppliers.”
The fatal accident at its refinery at Mongstad in September, where a worker was killed during a lifting operation, has had a major effect on the company, Salthe said.
“This was a tragic accident which has greatly affected us,” she said. “Everyone who works for Equinor deserves to be safe at work. Our job is to continue learning from serious incidents like this.”
Equinor also reported that the frequency of personal injuries per million hours worked was 2.3 for 2025, the same level as for 2024.
Six oil and gas leaks were recorded in 2025, which is a reduction from seven reported for 2024. The leaks are classified according to the degree of severity in relation to the discharge rate.
Equinor reported no incidents with major accident potential in 2025.
Incident Follow-Up and Preventive Work
Equinor said it had a high activity level in 2025 with many hours worked at Mongstad, the Hammerfest liquefied natural gas process plant on Melkøya island, and the offshore Empire Wind project in the US.
“We’ve experienced individual incidents and orders from the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority where we’ve implemented measures based on lessons learned and identified nonconformities. These are all followed up systematically,” Salthe said.
Salthe added that Equinor plans to strengthen safety work in 2026, building on experience and focused activities, including technical and organizational improvements, culture and working environment, risk management, and cooperation with suppliers.
“Our partnership with suppliers is an important part of the safety work associated with our activities,” she said. “Together, we’re continuously seeking out improvements, for example in areas such as management in the field and training and onboarding of new employees.”
The company also pointed to preventive security work as crucial for risk management in the company. Equinor said that, as of 2025, security barriers are part of the framework for major accident prevention.