Norway oil safety regulator warns of threats from unidentified drones
26/09/2022 12:14
OSLO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Norway's Petroleum Safety
Authority (PSA) on Monday urged oil companies to be more
vigilant over unidentified drones seen flying near Norwegian
offshore oil and gas platforms, warning they could pose a risk
of accidents or deliberate attacks.
The warning came after the country's largest oil and gas
firm Equinor EQNR.OL recently said it had notified authorities
of sightings of drones of unknown origin flying near some of its
platforms.
"We would urge increased vigilance, a review of emergency
preparedness measures and incident response, and information
sharing," the PSA said in a letter to operators.
The safety watchdog said unidentified drones posed a risk to
helicopters that transport offshore workers, could become an
ignition source in areas with explosion hazard, or could be used
for deliberate attacks.
Newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported last week that
unidentified drones had been observed at least at six Equinor
installations, including at its giant oilfield Johan Sverdrup.
Last Tuesday, a drone was observed some 50 meters away from
Equinor's Heidrun platform in the North Sea, breaching the
500-metre security perimeter, the newspaper reported.
"There have been observations of drones at some of our
installations on the Norwegian continental shelf," a
spokesperson for Equinor told Reuters, declining to elaborate.
Equinor has reported the incidents to the Norwegian
authorities, including the PSA and police.
"We are taking those sightings very seriously," the company
spokesperson added.
Drones have been also observed near Kristin, Gullfaks C,
Snorre A and Gina Krog installations, Aftenbladet reported.
Norway's southwestern police district said it had started an
investigation into sightings of drones offshore and had notified
the Norwegian Police Security Service, which deals with
terrorism and external threats.
"The police are taking seriously observations of illegal
drone activities, and are monitoring the situation closely,"
lead investigator Amund Preede Revheim told Reuters in an email.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Jan Harvey)
((nerijus.adomaitis@thomsonreuters.com; +47 9027 6699; Reuters
Messaging: nerijus.adomaitis.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))