Challenges in safety management within complex, subcontractor-driven environments: Reflections from Equinor's incidents

Even with modern safety frameworks and analytical tools, maintaining safety in complex operational environments remains challenging, particularly when tasks are delegated to subcontractors. Safety requirements are not always clearly specified, and follow-up on training, workload, and validation is often limited. Reporting practices also pose challenges, as early warning signs and deviations may not be communicated due to limited psychological safety, concerns about efficiency impacts, or fear of conflict. Such conditions are well documented in high-risk domains, where gaps in oversight, knowledge transfer, staffing, and procedural compliance have contributed to safety incidents. This paper analyzes four cases: the 2012 outsourcing of oil and gas computer security to India; warnings in 2025 about Russian involvement in critical software development; outsourced drilling operations and drillercabin design; and fall accidents in 2023 and 2025. Focusing on operator-subcontractor collaboration, the cases reveal recurring systemic patterns, including fragmented responsibility, gaps between espoused safety values and values-in-use, and weaknesses in verification, competence assurance, and stop-work authority. The findings indicate that effective safety management requires more than compliance; it depends on clear accountability, continuous verification of work-as-done (WAD), organizational learning, and psychological safety to prevent major incidents.

Keywords: Outsourcing, Organizational Learning, Human Factors.