Statoil ends the search for the 48-year-old man who was reported missing on the Visund platform in the North Sea on Thursday 6 October. The search of the seabed around the platform was unsuccessful.

Boats and helicopters have been involved in the search for the missing man. A search party and dog have searched the entire platform.

During the weekend a ROV has been used in the search of the seabed both from the platform and the Norman Pioner vessel. Also this search was unsuccessful.

”After searching both the platform and in the sea we unfortunately still do not know what happened, and this affects both the crew on board the platform and the organisation onshore. We had hoped to find the man, and are sorry that the search operations were unsuccessful. Our thoughts go out to his relatives,” says Hans Jakob Hegge, senior vice president for operations on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Statoil has worked closely with the missing man’s employer, Beerenberg, after the incident occurred, and his close relatives have been offered support. Also employees on board the Visund platform have been offered support by an offshore chaplain and personnel from the Centre for Crisis Psychology, and townhall meetings have been held on board. The police have been on the Visund platform, talking with people there as part of their investigations.

Production on the platform had already been shut down due to a scheduled test of the shutdown functions, and the start-up of production was postponed when the man was reported missing. Regular production has been resumed during the weekend.

Source: Statoil ,October 09 , 2011