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* BP controlling wells at Valhall offshore field from land
* Other oil companies considering following suit
* Norway is testing ground for new method
By Gwladys Fouche and Nerijus Adomaitis
OSLO, June 18 (Reuters) - Oil and gas companies are movingtheir control of some offshore platforms to offices on land tocut costs and improve efficiency, but labour unions say suchmoves reduce safety.
Some oil companies already monitor platforms live from landto assist offshore crew. They can also remotely control smallunmanned platforms and subsea production units.
Now they are starting to control some operations of larger,manned platforms, and Norway, the world's seventh-largest crudeexporter, is serving as their testing ground.
Unions say the move endangers safety, a top focus ofregulators and the industry since BP's Macondo accidentin the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which killed 11 people andresulted in a massive oil spill.
"Would you board a plane without a captain?" askedChristopher Birknes, a representative of trade union IndustriEnergi at BP.
"What happens if there is an emergency situation andcommunication is lost between the platform and the onshorecontrol room?"
Leading the way is BP, which has moved control of the oiland gas wells at the Valhall field in the North Sea to its headoffice in Stavanger some 350 km away (217 miles).
There is still a control room at Valhall, where processing,injection activities and the monitoring of safety systems takesplace. If all goes well, however, BP says it may move control ofinjection and processing activities onshore, leaving only themonitoring of safety systems offshore.
Total plans to control from land the platform atits Martin Linge field, which is due to start production in2016. Statoil also is considering whether to transfersome control room activities onshore.
Safety has been a focus in the North Sea in recent years. In2012, a gas leak at Total's Elgin field in the British sectionof the North Sea took weeks to get under control. Production wasshut for 11 months.
In Norway, oil safety regulator Ptil told BP in April itmust review the way it handles risk and maintenance at offshoreinstallations following a leak at the Ula platform, which couldhave caused a major accident.
SPECIALISTS ON HAND
BP says the new procedure enhances the management ofproduction operations and increases safety, with engineers atthe head office on hand to assist the control room operators,who are in live contact with their offshore colleagues.
"In the old days, you would have to fly out specialists.This will save us time and money," BP Norway spokesman Jan ErikGeirmo said.
Total said land-based control of its Martin Linge fieldwould mean fewer people offshore to evacuate in case of anemergency.
"We could evacuate them quicker if something happens as wewould need to fly fewer helicopters," spokesman Leif HaraldHalvorsen said.
Oilfields in Norway tend to be smaller than years ago aftercompanies depleted the biggest fields, putting pressure on firmsto find ways to cut costs.
Costs off Norway are expected to increase 6 percent per yearuntil 2016 due to increased prices for equipment, material andlabour, according to a 2011 report by the Norwegian oil industrylobby group.
"We need simpler and simpler solutions," said Ivar Aasheim, Statoil's senior vice-president for field development offNorway. He said Statoil also was considering whether to movesome control room activities onshore.
"It could happen in three to four years' time if we decideto go ahead with this," he said.
He added, however, that the company was conscious of thepotential challenges and would not implement any solution ifofficials thought it would endanger safety.
"BAD FOR SAFETY"
Norwegian trade unions are up in arms about BP's changes atValhall, which they see as a test case for the rest of the oilindustry.
One criticism is that onshore operators are not on theplatform, making it more difficult to communicate.
"To work in a team, you work better when you are near oneanother. If you are unsure, you can sit down and talk. You can'tdo it in the same way with someone far," said Dag UnnarMongstad, a Statoil trade union official. "We do not feel safe."
Mongstad, who belongs to the Industri Energi union, is alsoconcerned about information being missed, because control roomoperators onshore would not be working the same hours asoffshore workers.
At Valhall, offshore staff work two 12-hour shifts 14 daysin a row, while onshore staff work three eight-hour shifts onweekdays and two 12-hour shifts on weekends.
Onshore operators may not immediately notice things thathappen on the platform because they are not there, critics say.
Birknes, the trade union official at BP, is also worriedabout the risks of losing communication between platform andland and of hacking attacks.
Industri Energi conducted a survey among members working atValhall. Some 69 percent said they felt more unsafe after BPmoved well control operations offshore, while 31 percent felt assafe as before. None felt safer.
All said they would fell less safe were BP to move allcontrol room operations onshore.
But Industri Energi and another union, SAFE, have beenunsuccessful in efforts to stop BP's changes at Valhall.
The Labour Ministry last week confirmed a decision by Ptil,the oil safety regulator, to approve BP's onshore operations andsaid that "systems are sufficiently robust to ensure theoffshore control room (at Valhall) will always be able toperform a controlled shutdown (of production)".
"The guiding principle to approve BP's solution was thatthey can ensure safe operations of the Valhall field at anytime. The authority considers that this is properly addressed,"Ptil spokesman Oeyvind Midttun said.
