In 2021, the Storting decided that the many oil workers who became permanently ill or suffered injuries from working in the North Sea in the early days should receive financial compensation. A report was drawn up, with a consultation deadline of 2 June. It recommends that oil workers who worked closely with oil and chemicals in the early days and became seriously ill can receive compensation. The oil workers’ organization ALF Offshore is now demanding that this be up to NOK 7.7 million, equivalent to what the North Sea divers received. At the same time, a full survey is being carried out in the Cancer Register of the health damage suffered by the oil workers. Now 18,000 oil workers who took part in a survey 25 years ago are being contacted. Many oil workers have struggled to get occupational injury compensation, because they have not been able to document that the injuries originated in the oil job. Became permanently ill and died. The oil workers often worked with poor protective equipment and in thin coveralls that were soaked with oil spills. A large number of them got cancer or other serious illnesses. Many also died at an early age, often in their 50s. The cancer registry has worked for several years to map the health damage suffered by oil workers from the early days. Altogether, it is about 70,000 people. A final group of 18,000 has now been contacted with an offer to participate in the survey online. It is also possible to enter information here. Oil workers on the drilling deck of Statfjord A in 1979. Photo: Knut Nedrås / NTB To link with disease registers The cancer register asks to know where the workers worked, what tasks they had, how long they worked on the platforms and what lasting injuries or illnesses they suffered. This will be linked to several disease registers to see the connection between the work and the injuries they suffered. Research leader Jo Stenehjem at the Norwegian Cancer Registry is leading the project to look at connections between working with oil and serious health damage. Photo: Per M. Didriksen / OUS, Radiumhospitalet – The studies will strengthen knowledge about why the oil workers fell ill and how they fared afterwards, says senior researcher Jo Stenehjem at the Cancer Registry. The aim is to get an overview of all Norwegian offshore workers who worked in the North Sea from the end of the 1960s until today. Compensation scheme coming In December last year, a committee presented a report with several proposals for what compensation the oil workers should receive, and what criteria should be used as a basis. The main conclusion was that those who can receive compensation must satisfy these requirements: They must have worked with drilling, well work, production or maintenance on oil installations for a specific period of time. This is set from 1966 to at least 1985. It must be possible to document lasting illness or injury that has a possible connection with chemical exposure to drilling mud, hydrocarbons and/or benzene in work offshore. The oil workers’ organization ALF Offshore believes that the period giving the right to compensation should be extended to at least 1990, perhaps to 1995. And they therefore believe that seriously injured oil workers must receive the same compensation as the North Sea divers, that is up to 65 G, or 7, NOK 7 million. The oil industry’s organization Offshore Norway writes in its consultation response that the compensation scheme must be fair to other professional groups who have also had a dangerous working environment. They believe that oil work after 1985 did not differ significantly from the working environment many had in the industry on land. – It is urgent Offshore Norway also says that compensation must only be given to those who have been exposed to chemicals that were special to the oil industry, and that there must be state funding for the compensation. For the oil workers’ organization ALF Offshore, there is one thing that is more important than anything else: – The members are begging on their knees that the scheme is realized as quickly as possible, as oil pioneers are dying month by month, and now it is really urgent, they write in their consultation response. Workers on the drilling deck of the Nordskald platform in 1974. Photo: Erik Thorberg / NTB
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Demands large compensations for each oil worker – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
