Equinor made serious safety breaches at methanol plant: PSA

Norway's Equinor made "serious breaches" of safety regulations at its methanol plant in Tjeldbergodden, where a fire broke out in December last year, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) concluded on June 24.

The fire started in a compressor housing, resulting in a three-month shutdown of the plant, which accounts for 10% of European methanol consumption. It returned to operation in late February.

During adjustments to the settings of a regulator that controls steam admission to the turbine generator, a process shutdown (PSD) had to be initiated manually because of an unexpected response from the control system, the PSA explained. When a PSD is initiated, the generator must be disconnected from the power grid and the turbine isolated from the steam network, but the latter did not occur and the backflow of steam at the intermediate pressure level increased turbine rotation.

"This faster speed caused turbine blades to come lose from the rotor, which then became wedged and stopped abruptly. That caused the shaft to snap between turbine and gear," PSA said. "One result of this breakdown was that components from the turbine shaft and a flexible coupling on the shaft where flung about with great force. Objects struck included piping for the turbine’s lube oil system, which broke. That caused a lube oil leak, which ignited."

The fire was confined to the compressor housing and there were no casualties, but the PSA concluded that it could have caused loss of life and substantial financial losses. The serious breaches of regulation it listed were in "identifying safety functions and barrier follow-up, follow-up of the system, documentation and safe distance from the fire scene." It ordered Equinor to "identify, initiate and follow up measures to ensure that equipment with a safety function is identified and classified to ensure correct follow-up of its function and proper handling of impairments in order to secure safe operation."

The PSA similarly found serious breaches of regulations at Equinor's Hammerfest LNG plant, where a more serious fire occurred in late September last year. The plant is not expected to come back online until the end of March 2022.