03 OCTOBER 2025 – Equinor's internal investigation of the fall accident at Hammerfest LNG is finalized. A number of measures have been initiated to capture lessons learned from the serious incident.
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.
About the investigation
The investigation aims to understand the course of events and extract learnings.
The investigation has been conducted by Corporate Audit and Investigation (CAI), which reports to the Equinor board of directors.
The investigation is based on more than 50 interviews and information from Equinor, the main contractor, the subcontractor, the staffing agency and external sources.
The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havtil) is also investigating the incident.
The investigation report from Equinor has been submitted to Havtil.
The investigation report’s description of the incident
The investigation describes several factors that contributed to increasing the risk of a fall accident during formwork activities:
There were snow and ice in the workplace, more work teams than normal in a limited area, and reduced monitoring of the activities on the site due to an external management gathering.
The scaffolding planks were located in an area that was closed off, and consequently the team was standing on loose and unsteady formwork beams.
There were not good enough anchoring points for the fall protection equipment that was used. As a result, the fall protection method was not suitable for reducing the consequences of a fall from height.
The work team felt that there was no room for stopping the work, even though they had asked for scaffolding planks and expressed uncertainty.
Measures implemented immediately after the accident
The work procedures were reviewed, it was checked that everyone has the right skills, and all fall protection equipment was checked.
The procedures for work at height, especially in connection with formwork activities, were tightened up.
A training centre was established for hands-on training in the safe use of fall protection.
A new organisational structure with increased management capacity was established at Equinor, Aibel and Consto locally in Hammerfest.
Suppliers involved
Aibel is one of Equinor's main suppliers and has worked at Hammerfest LNG for a number of years as a maintenance and modification supplier. Aibel played a key role in preparing Hammerfest LNG for production after the fire in 2020. The company has 5300 employees in Norway, Thailand and Singapore.
Consto is one of the country's leading building and construction companies. The company has operations in all regions of the country, as well as construction operations in southern Sweden. Consto has more than 1,200 full-time employees in Norway and Sweden. The head office is located in Tromsø.