Norway’s Equinor has breached safety regulations at its long-delayed Martin Linge oil and gas development and must fix the problems before output can begin, an industry regulator said on 5 January.
Following an audit of control, monitoring, and safety systems, the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) listed nine deviations from the rules, including in the reliability of detecting gas leaks and in the configuration of alarm systems.
Years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, the North Sea project was due to come on stream in mid-2021.
“Serious breaches of the regulations were identified,” the PSA said in a statement.
The regulator said it will require Equinor to deal with the infractions before granting consent to start production.
“Equinor takes note of the PSA report. ... We will comply with the order and deliver a plan to close the nonconformities within the deadlines,” the company said in an emailed statement.