Which of the following is always the first and highest tactical priority in an emergency operation?

Safety: Our vision is zero harm

The safety and security of our people, and integrity of our operations, is our top priority. We believe that all accidents related to people, environment and assets can be prevented.

We focus on preventing personal injuries, work related illness and major accidents, and the goal of zero injuries has become part of how we think and work, with a strong focus on continuous improvement.

Definitions

Serious incident performance management

We have clear and firm expectations to record and follow up all incidents. To identify and mitigate root causes, the most serious incidents are always investigated to ensure learning.

The Serious Incident Frequency (SIF) indicator measures the number of actual and potential unintentional serious incidents per million working hours. TRIF is the number of serious HSE-incidents (including conditions and near misses but excluding all instances of ethical misconduct) categorised with a potential red degree of seriousness per million hours worked.

• Read our sustainabiity report here
• Sustainability in Equinor

Our focus areas

In Equinor, we aim to continuously develop a proactive culture where safe and secure operation is incorporated into everything we do.

Our strategic focus on being “Always safe” is guided by our commitment to prevent harm to people, to the environment and the communities we are a part of. We are an international operator of exploration activities, oil and gas installations, refineries, gas plants and wind farms, and hence face a range of potential risks.

A key component in this work is being long-term committed to a few main priority areas. We have defined companywide priorities to ensure harmonization and an aligned approach to our strategy.

The “Annual wheel” defines priority topics and associated actions to ensure a stronger common focus on main challenges. We share our main topics with the industry. In 2021 we will prioritize prevention of major accidents, personnel injuries, falling objects and negative health effects.

Learning and follow-up after incidents is key to enhance safety culture and working closely with our peers and suppliers is crucial to our overall performance.

Industry collaboration
The purpose of collaboration is to strengthen the industry’s safety culture and work together towards zero major accidents and avoid injuries and undesirable incidents in our daily work.

An arena for sharing and learning from events and to facilitate stronger collaboration was established in 2020. The initiative is called “Always safe” and was a result of the collaboration between AkerBP, Vår Energi and Equinor.

A collaboration charter with four of our largest suppliers in Norway – Aker Solutions, Kværner, Aibel and WorleyParson has been established.

We have agreed upon following the “Lifesaving rules” and to prioritise the same measures in the “Annual Wheel”.

• “Always Safe” website
• Life-saving rules website

Health and working environment

A good working environment is essential to employee health, operational safety and employee engagement. We ensure that barriers are in place to prevent harmful exposures. We provide high-quality medical care, and ensure that health is an integral part of our emergency response and approach to social impact.

Crisis and Business Continuity Management

Equinor are prepared to respond to hazards, incidents, and major security threats to prevent or reduce loss, damage, injuries or other consequences to people, the environment and assets, production and operations, information, financial assets and the group's reputation.

Our Business Continuity Management is focusing on the medium- and long-term consequences and derived actions to Equinor’s capability to ensure continuity and flow assurance when a business disruptive situation occurs.

Corporate Safety is responsible for setting strategic direction and maintaining Equinor’s corporate framework on crisis and Crisis and Business Continuity Management.

We have company-wide management systems that describes protocols and response governance for emergency response and business continuity management. Our management systems incorporate industry good practices, Equinor requirements, national requirements and ISO standards.

The management systems set requirements for conducting analysis, how to develop and design response plans and for implementing the emergency response plans.

The response organisations train and exercise frequently and are evaluated at regular basis.

A Global Incident Management Assist Team that consists of highly competent and specially trained personnel from all over the company are ready to assist and support in emergency response situations all over the world.

Our emergency response organisation

Our emergency response organisation is always in a state of readiness, around the clock, 365 days a year. If an incident occurs our most important objectives are to save lives and minimise harm to the environment and assets.

Security

In Equinor, security is an organisational capability that enables corporate objectives by safeguarding our people, assets and operations.

Good security begins with the behaviour and actions of each and every one of us – how we think and act each day at work or at home. By being aware of, and thinking through, our daily routines and actions, all employees contribute to our own and Equinor’s security.

We emphasise that security is everybody’s responsibility. We all have to understand the risks we face, and act to ensure we are secure. Leaders are accountable for protecting our people and business by continuously identifying, understanding and acting to reduce security risks. All employees play a role in being vigilant, complying with security requirements at all times, and reporting incidents and concerns.

The ability to keep our people, assets and operations secure from malicious threats is a key factor in maintaining our licence to operate and being a successful business. Failure to meet security expectations could result in injury to our people, damage to our facilities, loss of production or information, or in the worst case, loss of life.

We have an holistic approach to security in Equinor covering three disciplines: physical security, information security and personnel security. These three disciplines work together create a strong regime, each protecting against the weaknesses of the next, providing a mix of deterrence and detection.

Physical security

Physical security measures are designed to safeguard personnel, prevent unauthorised access to facilities, equipment, and documents; and to safeguard against eavesdropping, sabotage, damage, and theft.

Information security

Information security is the process of protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. We have a risk-based approach to Information security focusing on people, process and technology.

Personnel security

Personnel security protects against those who exploit their legitimate access to our assets for unauthorized purposes.

Our values

Our values embody the spirit and energy of Equinor at its best. They help us set direction, and they guide our decisions, actions and the way we interact with others. Our values express the ideals we strive to live up to every day.

Our leaders are expected to drive the development of a strong safety culture founded on our values and our facilities must be well maintained at all times and procedures for safe operations must be in place.

We focus on preventing personal injuries, work related illness and major accidents, and the goal of zero injuries has become part of how we think and work, with a strong focus on continuous improvement.