Statoil to Collect Environmental Data from Aasta Hansteen

As previously notified, Statoil has been issued with an order concerning the collection of environmental data from the Aasta Hansteen field.

In conformity with the notification, Statoil is issued with the following order:

Pursuant to the Framework Regulations, section 69 concerning administrative decisions, with reference to section 46 of the Framework Regulations concerning oceanography, meteorology and earthquake data, Statoil is ordered as follows:

1. To have a visual service onboard Aasta Hansteen in addition to the instrumentation which generates automatically measured meteorological parameters and AutoMETAR.

2. To supply METAR/AutoMETAR in accordance with NORSOK-N-002 (2010) Collection of metocean data, chapter 5.2. Statoil shall also supply meteorological measurements for forecasting purposes in accordance with NORSOK N-002 (2010) chapters 5.3 and 5.4. The instrumentation shall be in compliance with NORSOK N-002, appendix A. The siting of instruments shall be done so that sources of error are reduced to the greatest possible extent or eliminated. Wind shall be measured in m/s and cloud altitude in m, contrary to METAR where knots and feet are specified. Wind direction shall be measured relative to true north and not magnetic north as specified in METAR. Statoil shall adhere to NORSOK N-002 (2010) chapter 5.3 concerning SHIP/SYNOP FM-13, and chapter 5.4 concerning meteorological measurements, for the transmission of wave data and seawater temperature from suitable instruments (buoy). In SHIP/SYNOP FM-13 and meteorological measurements, wind shall be measured in m/s and cloud altitude in metres. Wave energy spectra shall be measured in addition to the parameters described in N-002 (2010) chapter 5.4.

3. To transfer automatically measured parameters to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute every tenth minute, as is usual from Statoil’s facilities. This also applies to wave data, seawater temperature and salinity, with ref. to NORSOK N-002 (2010) chapter 6.1.

4. To measure ocean currents at several depths and transmit the data to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, with ref. to NORSOK N-002 (2010) chapter 6.

5. To submit details on the choice of instruments, siting of instruments, transmission and reporting of data to the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.