KIELLAND-NETTVERKET

CLAIM FOR STATE COMPENSATION

1. Equal compensation for all 212 people who were on board the Kielland on March 27, 1980 / their descendants.

2. It is urgent to provide compensation to the Kielland victims.

Largest Peacetime Disaster

The accommodation rig Alexander L. Kielland capsized in the North Sea on March 27th, 1980, and to this day remains Norway’s largest industrial disaster in peacetime.
123 men lost their lives, and 89 survived, many of them marked for life by the traumatic experience.

Between 300 and 400 children lost their fathers, young widows lost their husbands and providers, and parents lost their beloved sons. Neither survivors nor bereaved families received follow-up support from society at large, despite the known need for it—something the Norwegian Parliament unanimously apologized for only in 2021.

Many have struggled greatly with trauma, mental health issues, substance abuse, and financial hardship. Several have chosen to end their lives.

The Norwegian Parliament Apologized and Allocated Funding

The Office of the Auditor General of Norway (Riksrevisjonen)investigated the state’s handling of the ALK accident and presented its conclusions in 2021, stating, among other things, that it was serious and deserving of criticism that no one received help.

A unanimous Norwegian Parliamentapologized and allocated NOK 2 millionfor a health study conducted by the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) and NOK 8 millionfor a documentation project assigned to the Norwegian Petroleum Museum in Stavanger. Both projects were to be carried out in close cooperation with the Kielland Network, despite the fact that no operational funding was grantedto the Kielland Network for this work.

Continued Health Impact

In 2024, NKVTS concluded that the Kielland victims still experience poorer health and quality of life than the general population. They further recommended that the Kielland Network be given the opportunity to organize gatherings, enabling affected individuals to meet others with similar experiences. Based on this recommendation, applications for operational funding were submitted through the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s grant scheme—but all applications were rejected.

New Findings from the Documentation Project

As part of the documentation project, a research report from the University of Stavangerwas published on January 11th, 2025, led by Professor Marie Smith-Solbakken, with lawyer Eva Jolyas part of the research team.

The researchers were granted access to previously closed archives and reviewed materials from several key Labour Party ministers from 1980 onward. This work revealed serious new findings, including:

• The Kielland rig was never approved as an accommodation platform
• Safety conditions were inadequate
• Only 5 of the 212 people on board had completed safety training
• There was a lack of life jackets
• The lifeboats were impossible to launch

Divers documented the scene with over 200 photographs, showing that doors, hatches, and manholes were openon the day of the accident, with cables and wiring passing through them.

Stability experts from two independent universitiesconcluded that water entered through these openings, causing the platform to capsize completely in just 18 minutes. If everything had been properly secured, the platform could have remained in a stable tilted position (30 degrees)for up to two hours, allowing rescue boats and helicopters to arrive and save most of those on board.

Investigation Failures

The investigation into the Kielland disaster was seriously inadequate:

• Key evidence, such as logbooks and the captain’s diary, was never found
• Responsibility was never assigned
• The composition of the investigation commission was criticized
• The classification society Veritas, seen as closely tied to the state, was included, while no experts with platform operation experience were involved
• The case was ultimately dismissed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, despite serious doubts

Both the public prosecutor and the Director of Public Prosecutions questioned whether doors and hatches had been open—despite photographic evidence clearly showing that they were.

Human Rights Concerns and Responsibility

Lawyers who reviewed the 2025 UiS report identified multiple violations of human rights, and Eva Joly described the tragedy as 123 cases of negligent homicide. The Kielland rig was characterized as a dangerous workplace.
Veritas had already acknowledged that safety conditions were unacceptablein a memo intended for a government conference just days after the disaster. This memo was removed by the Minister of Petroleum, but later rediscovered by researchers in another minister’s archive.

“Nothing Must Stop the Norwegian Oil Adventure”

At the time, the priority was clear: nothing should stand in the way of Norway’s oil expansion. Exploration was simply to continue further north. The Kielland victims were, quite literally, sacrificed. They were to be forgotten, and no one in power was willing to take up their cause.

Compensation and Pressure on Survivors & Widows

Survivors and widows—still in deep shock and grief—were shortly after the disaster pressured into signing compensation agreements, described by many as “crumbs” or “blood money,” from Phillips, GARD, and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO). The Kielland Network possesses both descriptions and copies of these highly controversial agreements. Despite this, representatives of the Labour Party have responded to calls for state compensation by saying: “But you have already received compensation.”

The reality remains: No one has ever received a single krone in compensation from the Norwegian state.

Penalty Rounds and Delaying Tactics

On June 5th, 2025, responsibility was placed with the state, when the Parliament decided that the Kielland victims shall receive state compensation. At that point, if the government had shown goodwill, it would have been possible to include the Kielland compensation in the national budget for 2026. But there was a catch in the decision of June 5:

The Office of the Auditor General was once again to review the state’s responsibility, now by examining the two new research reports, i.e., the health survey from NKVTS and the research report from UiS (which any sensible person can easily understand by reading them themselves).

This turned out to be an extra penalty round for the Kielland victims, as nothing particularly new emerged, according to the Auditor General. Auditor General Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen concluded that “The State does not bear the main responsibility for the Alexander L. Kielland accident.”

This is something that we in the Kielland Network, and the Government itself, disagree with. The State had, and has, the overarching responsibility for activities on the Norwegian continental shelf. Quote from regjeringen.no:

“The Ministry of Energy (ED), as the sector ministry, has overall responsibility for petroleum activities on the Norwegian continental shelf. This responsibility includes, among other things, health, environment and safety (HSE), security, and working environment in the petroleum sector.” Most of this was not fully developed and/or failed when the Kielland platform capsized. A number of books and research reports document everything that failed, including unclear regulations, all exemptions that were granted, missing approvals, etc., etc.

Following the throne speech debate in autumn 2025, it was decided that the Government should present its proposal for a compensation scheme for the Kielland victims by March 2026. This was because the supporting parties considered it unnecessary to make the victims wait until the national budget for 2027.

The Government delivered nothing. This is serious, and cannot be perceived as anything other than deliberate delaying of a simple matter, where all 212 shall receive the same amount, which is 65 G. For this, neither a law is needed nor a penitential walk through the NAV system! Make it as simple as when the North Sea divers finally received their compensation in 2014!

The principle of equality in the Constitution

As one Kielland daughter expressed it:
“Is my father’s life worth less than the life of the diver who searched for him on the seabed?”

No, and Section 98 of the Constitution states precisely that the two lives are worth the same.

Some representatives from the Labour Party have also used as justification for lack of support that Kielland compensation will create so-called precedent, meaning that Parliament may receive claims also from those who experience landslides and earth collapses in the future.

No, that will not happen! Parliament itself created precedent by paying 65 G to the North Sea divers, and Kielland is the last group within the defined Pioneer Era of oil activity. This era ended in 1990.

Collecting obituaries

With great sorrow, we have experienced that many of the survivors have passed away in recent years, as well as many of the widows. Just since the decision on June 5th, 2025, a double-digit number of our members have died. Those who gave their lives, their family lives, and their health for the Norwegian oil adventure… Those who are still alive deserve compensation, and it is urgent! As a well-known NRK journalist recently expressed it: “Kielland is still a national trauma.” What is the real reason that the Labour Party resists this so strongly? Is there something major they are hiding? This must be a highly relevant question.

Now the other oil worker groups, i.e., the North Sea divers and the Oil Pioneers, have received their redress; only Kielland remains. The Labour Party supported both of these groups, just not the Kielland victims.

No other accident or disaster is as serious and at the same time as thoroughly documented and investigated through research, literature, and media coverage as Kielland—worldwide, in fact. No further assessment is needed within the Government; the Kielland case is as simple as this:

Give the same compensation to the 212 who were on Kielland now!
No individual assessment is necessary.

Take it from the Oil Fund, for heaven’s sake!

It is known (from Parliament’s Question Time on January 29, 2025) that the money exists. So use the funds that were originally earmarked to compensate for accidents/incidents on the shelf, the so-called Petroleum Insurance Fund, which is now incorporated into the sovereign wealth fund. The victims of Kielland should have received compensation a long time ago! And it is obvious that this must be used to ensure justice for the Kielland victims. No one in this country would react negatively to using a microscopic sum from the Oil Fund for the oil workers who gave their lives and health for our immense wealth.