Fewer injuries to Statoil employees and contractor personnel and less absence from work were recorded in the third quarter.
This positive trend shows that the commitment to zero health, environmental and safety incidents in the group is yielding results.
The lost-time injury frequency among employees at the Mongstad refinery near Bergen has been halved over the past year. No lost-time injuries and only one injury requiring treatment were recorded during 500,000 working hours at the facility during July-September.
Nor have any lost-time injuries been suffered on Statoil's Veslefrikk, Yme and Troll A platforms in the North Sea during this period.
"This positive trend can partly be attributed to the steady and systematic efforts being devoted to safety," says Christina D Dreetz in the corporate health, environment and safety (HES) department.
Statoil's contractors have also suffered fewer injuries so far this year compared with the same period of 1997. The injury frequency has declined from 21.7 per million working hours in last year to 12.9.
The operation services unit in Oil Operations recently organised an HES contractor forum, which attracted senior management from 22 contractors. A great deal of time was devoted to exchanging experience, and to measures for achieving the zero target.
A substantial improvement in serious incidents was also recorded up to 30 September. Measured per million working hours, incidents with a high risk potential declined from 6.7 last year to 3.8.
This reduces the prospects that really serious accidents and losses will occur, the HES department notes.