Eni Needs Union Approval to Restart Arctic Oil Field
September 09 2016 - 2:11PM
Dow Jones News
By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland
OSLO -- The world's northernmost offshore oil field could
restart production within two weeks following its shut down last
month, said Eni SpA, but the decision still needs labor-union
approval as authorities step up pressure on the Italian oil
producer to improve its record.
"Production will resume when all parties decide it is right to
do so, realistically within a couple of weeks," Eni said in a news
release after meeting Friday with Norway's Petroleum Safety
Authority, project partner Statoil ASA and worker
representatives.
Eni shut down the 100,000-barrels-a-day field and evacuated the
platform of dozens of workers after a power loss two weeks ago. The
safety authority subsequently ordered the operator to fix numerous
problems at the platform.
"We are happy that Eni has chosen to keep production shut down
until measures have been taken to ensure the safe operation of the
platform," said a Petroleum Safety Authority spokeswoman. "That
means we don't have to demand operations to be shut down."
In Friday's meeting with the authority, Eni said it presented a
report on an internal investigation into the power loss, concluding
that gas had been detected in an area of the platform and the power
supply had been shut down to avoid ignition.
The company said it had chosen to keep production on hold until
it can address safety concerns raised by workers. Eni said it had
established a team of managers and unions representatives that
would cooperate to ensure that the platform is safe.
In June, union representatives alerted the government safety
authority about concerns at Goliat, questioning the functionality
of the backup power system that is supposed to kick in during power
loss and addressing a lack of cooperation with management, some of
whom allegedly didn't speak English or Scandinavian languages
well.
The safety authority said operations at Goliat would be allowed
to resume only when unions agreed that the platform was safe to
operate.
The Goliat crew has scrambled to life boats several times this
year, following power losses, smoke detection, gas leaks and false
alarms, according to official documents reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal. The safety agency has issued three orders to Eni to
improve its operations, and in June launched an investigation after
a worker was injured by a steel wire.
--Eric Sylvers in Milan contributed to this article.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 09, 2016 13:56 ET (17:56 GMT)
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