Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) started an investigation into an LNG leak at the Hammerfest LNG plant on 17 June 2018. The incident happened while a road tanker was being filled with LNG at the Equinor facility at Melkøya outside Hammerfest in northern Norway.
During the operation, the tanker driver noticed LNG coming from the vehicle’s safety valves. The filling process was stopped with the emergency switch, while an evacuation alarm was sounded and personnel gathered.
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The emergency services followed the position closely, along with Equinor employees and other personnel. A little late, the leak rate was reduced to a level where detectors in the area no longer showed readings.
PSA will begin an investigation in Hammerfest this week, to clarify the course of events, describing actual and possible results and identifying direct and and indirect causes, in order to provide lessons learned from this incident.
The report on the incident will be released once the investigation has been completed.
