The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) have granted Statoil, Exxonmobil and Gassco to establish and participate in area contingency planning for Sleipner Utsira as applied for.
Area contingency planning involves cooperation on emergency preparedness between several facilities and fields with the aim of sharing maritime and airborne emergency response resources. These resources may include one or more emergency response vessels and SAR helicopters.
Statoil points to the good experience from area contingency planning that has been established in several locations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and has applied for consent to establish similar area contingency planning for the Sleipner Utsire area.
The Sleipner Utsira area is in the North Sea west of Stavanger.
In addition to Statoil, Exxonmobil and Gassco are also field or pipeline operators in the area and have applied for consent to participate in the area contingency planning. This means that rescue vessels for individual fields will be removed.