The first labour dispute with workers on Statfjord involved working time and the tour cycle. Thirty-eight Norwegian electricians threatened to strike for better tour arrangements and refused to go offshore to work on Statfjord A.

With Statfjord far from land and the nearest hospital an hour away by helicopter, it has been important to maintain a good and acceptable occupational health service (OHS) on the field.

Safety considerations prompted a decision to pump 7 500 barrels of oily water into the sea from Statfjord A on 24 May 2008 following an incident when replacing a pipe in the platform’s utility shaft.

A break in the hose on the Statfjord A loading system while pumping oil into the Navion Britannia shuttle tanker on 12 December 2007 caused 27 500 barrels of crude to escape to the sea. Ranked as the second-largest oil spill in Norwegian history, it created a slick measuring one by eight kilometres.

An incident on Statfjord C was described by the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) as yet another case on a Statoil-operated platform where only luck prevented the loss of human life.

All production from Statfjord C was crippled for almost two days when a fire broke out in a module beneath the drill floor.

The search and rescue (SAR) helicopter stationed on Statfjord B was lost on the coast of Sogn og Fjordane county during 3 October 1990. A couple of hours earlier, the joint rescue coordination centre for southern Norway had requested Statoil’s assistance to look for a missing seaweed trawler near Askvoll in the Sogn area.

Two workers on Statfjord C died when a lifeboat was released from its hooks and fell 30 metres into the sea during November 1993. The men were doing maintenance work in the boat when the accident happened.

A Dutch crew member on Lay Barge 200 (LB200) died when a lifeboat he was working on came free from its davits and fell 25 metres into the sea on 5 July 1981. There were no witnesses to the accident.

Offshore loading from Statfjord had been underway for eight months when Polytraveller suffered an explosive fire on 21 August 1980. A break in the mooring line between the Statfjord A loading buoy and the shuttle tanker was the indirect cause. The master and first officer were both seriously injured, and the former died two weeks later from his injuries.

A Sikorsky S-61 N helicopter came down on 26 June 1978 about 55 nautical miles west of the Sogne Fjord while flying from Bergen’s Flesland airport to Statfjord A. Eighteen people died.

The fire alarms sounded constantly on Statfjord A during the hook-up stage, and in virtually every shift. False alarms were sometimes caused by hot work, but small blazes also broke out several times a month – generally started by sparks from welding or flame cutting.

The labour force on Statfjord A came from several countries. While the platform was being completed out on the field, 25 per cent of the workers were non-Norwegians. At least 26 nations were represented.

Completing Statfjord A in 1978 was a jigsaw puzzle, and working on it proved demanding. New modules were constantly having to be put in place, and planning was inadequate. Equipment already installed frequently had to be demounted and then reassembled. The workers were frustrated.

All intoxicants and drugs – with the exception of tobacco – have always been banned on Norwegian offshore installations. Oslo tabloid Dagbladet nevertheless informed its readers on 31 March 1978 that “Statfjord is a Mecca for trading in goal, diamonds and narcotics”.

An advisory committee was established by royal decree of 28 October 1977 to comment on work permit applications for foreigners – both groups and individuals – with jobs on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).