Statoil, the biggest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf, said on Monday that it was still not drilling at its Gullfaks field in the North Sea, as the company continued to review safety procedures after a recent serious incident there.
Statoil communications head Jannik Lindbaek told Platts that drilling operations remained shut and he could not say when they would restart.
"We are still working on the situation and we will get back with more information as soon as we have anything to say," Lindbaek added.
On November 11 Statoil announced that it was temporarily suspended drilling operations at the Gullfaks field to review routines following an unstable well incident in May.
Statoil said, however, that production was continuing as normal from the Gullfaks field and associated satellite fields.
Lindbaek said Statoil CEO Helge Lund was having a meeting with his senior management on Monday - and that top of the agenda was the question of urgent changes to the way the company does things, in order to meet demands from Norway's energy authorities.
On Friday Norwegian watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority, delivered Statoil a stinging rebuke over the loss of control at the Gullfaks C platform on May 19 that led to its shutdown for two months while Statoil struggled to make emergency repairs.
The PSA report stated that the incident had created a very dangerous situation and that only luck had prevented a major blowout.
Statoil itself has consistently denied it lost control, saying its blow out preventer remained operational and that there had been only a very small danger of a blowout or leak.
On Sunday Lund said in a national television interview that safety on the Norwegian continental shelf had been improving over the past decade, but he acknowledged that his group had fallen down sharply over Gullfaks C.
"We are better but the Gullfaks situation shows that we can do much better. We must establish a learning culture, and that means that we recognize when we are not good enough and we have not been in this situation," he said.
Statoil shut down production completely at the Gullfaks C platform, as well as the satellite Tordis platform, in the Norwegian part of the North Sea, due to pressure becoming unstable at one of its wells. The two normally produce about 60,000-70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
Statoil communications head Jannik Lindbaek told Platts that drilling operations remained shut and he could not say when they would restart.
"We are still working on the situation and we will get back with more information as soon as we have anything to say," Lindbaek added.
On November 11 Statoil announced that it was temporarily suspended drilling operations at the Gullfaks field to review routines following an unstable well incident in May.
Statoil said, however, that production was continuing as normal from the Gullfaks field and associated satellite fields.
Lindbaek said Statoil CEO Helge Lund was having a meeting with his senior management on Monday - and that top of the agenda was the question of urgent changes to the way the company does things, in order to meet demands from Norway's energy authorities.
On Friday Norwegian watchdog, the Petroleum Safety Authority, delivered Statoil a stinging rebuke over the loss of control at the Gullfaks C platform on May 19 that led to its shutdown for two months while Statoil struggled to make emergency repairs.
The PSA report stated that the incident had created a very dangerous situation and that only luck had prevented a major blowout.
Statoil itself has consistently denied it lost control, saying its blow out preventer remained operational and that there had been only a very small danger of a blowout or leak.
On Sunday Lund said in a national television interview that safety on the Norwegian continental shelf had been improving over the past decade, but he acknowledged that his group had fallen down sharply over Gullfaks C.
"We are better but the Gullfaks situation shows that we can do much better. We must establish a learning culture, and that means that we recognize when we are not good enough and we have not been in this situation," he said.
Statoil shut down production completely at the Gullfaks C platform, as well as the satellite Tordis platform, in the Norwegian part of the North Sea, due to pressure becoming unstable at one of its wells. The two normally produce about 60,000-70,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
