Oil tanker catches fire at Equinor’s Sture terminal

Norwegian oil company Equinor’s emergency response center on Friday received reports of a fire in the engine room of the tanker Dubai Harmony. The ship is moored at the quayside at the Sture terminal in Øygarden municipality in Hordaland, Norway. 

The public emergency rescue service and authorities have been notified of the situation, and Equinor’s emergency response organization is assisting on site, Equinor reported on Friday.

According to the company, the ship’s captain has reported that all the 23 people aboard the ship have been accounted for. There were 102 people at the Sture terminal when the incident occurred. Personnel who do not have emergency tasks have been evacuated from the terminal as a precautionary measure.

Equinor added that 22 people with emergency preparedness duties are now at the terminal.

“The emergency response organization in Equinor will maintain continuous contact with the public rescue service and other relevant authorities, and we refer to the local Police for further information,” Equinor said.

The Sture terminal receives crude oil from the Oseberg area through the 115 kilometer Oseberg transport system (OTS) from Oseberg field center, and crude oil from the Grane field through the 212 kilometer Grane oil pipeline (GOP).

The Svalin field was connected via the Grane pipeline in 2014. Crude oil from the Edvard Grieg field has been transported to Sture via GOP since the end of 2015, and from 2016 the Ivar Aasen field will be connected by the same pipeline with more oil for Sture.

The plant has two jetty facilities which can accommodate oil tankers up to 300,000 dead weight tonnes (dwt), five crude oil caverns with a capacity of one million cubic meters, a 60,000 cubic meter LPG cavern and a 200,000 cubic meter ballast water cavern.

Equinor is the operator of the Sture terminal with a 36.24% interest. Other partners are Petoro (48.38%), ConocoPhillips (2.40%), ExxonMobil (4.33%), and Total (8.65%).

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