Statoil, ExxonMobil, and Gassco have received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to establish and participate in area contingency planning in the Sleipner Utsira area, off Norway.
According to the safety agency, 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.
The PSA said that Statoil pointed 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, from Sleipner to Grane and Heimdal.
The Sleipner Utsira area is in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea west of Stavanger.
In addition to Statoil, ExxonMobil and Gassco, who are also field or pipeline operators in the area, have applied for consent to participate in the area contingency planning. This means that rescue vessels for individual fields will be removed, the agency said.
The PSA has now granted all three companies consent to establish and participate in the area contingency planning.