Statoil Confirms Missing Person at Visund Platform

A person is confirmed missing on the Visund installation in the North Sea. He did not show up for work this morning, and a search on the platform was immediately launched both on the installation and at sea.

Helicopters and vessels take part in the search.

"The search conditions in the area are good," said the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

The missing person is a 48-year-old man. He is a Norwegian citizen, employed at Beerenberg, a contractor of Statoil. Next-of-kin has been notified.

"We are very worried, and are doing what we can to find the missing person. Our emergency preparedness organization is assisting the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in the search," said Hans Jakob Hegge, senior operations vice president on the Norwegian continental shelf.

According to Hegge a townhall meeting has been organized for personnel on board the Visund platform. An offshore priest has arrived, and the Centre for Crisis Psychology has also been contacted to support the platform manager/OIM and other personnel.

Production on the Visund installation had already been shut down due to a scheduled test of the emergency shutdown functions.
"We have chosen not to resume production, as we want to allow workers on the platform to spend time together and talk about what has happened," Hegge said.


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