Equinor has halted production at the Visund oil and gas platform in the North Sea following a fire in the electrical switch room. The incident occurred at 11 AM local time on Wednesday and resulted in smoke and flames in the room housing the electrical control and distribution equipment.
Personnel Evacuation and Fire Status
All 128 personnel present on the platform have been fully accounted for, and about 70 of them have been transferred to nearby facilities. No injuries have been reported. Equinor spokesperson, Ellen Maria Skilbred, confirmed that the fire was extinguished by the afternoon, while work continues to fully control the incident.
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Impact on Norway's Gas Exports
Production has been halted as a precautionary measure, and the company stated that necessary repairs must be completed before operations can resume. The incident has been reported to the relevant authorities, but the cause of the fire is still unknown, and the timeline for resuming production has not yet been determined. This halt has also impacted Norway's gas exports, with the operator of the Norwegian gas system, Gassco, stating that export capacity from Visund has initially been reduced to 2.5 million cubic meters per day and will then drop to zero for the next gas day. The gas export capacity of this field reaches approximately 13.2 million cubic meters per day at maximum capacity.
The Visund field is located in the Tampen area of the North Sea and is northeast of the Gullfaks field. Production at this field began in 1999, and gas is transported via the Kvitebjørn pipeline to the Kollsnes processing facility. Equinor operates the field with a 53.2% stake, while other shareholders include Petoro (30%), ConocoPhillips (9.1%), and Repsol (7.7%).
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