Shell say the leak is ongoingOil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to stop a leak at one of its North Sea oil platforms.
The leak was found near the Gannett Alpha platform, 180 km (113 miles) from Aberdeen, Scotland.
The company would not say how much oil may have been spilt so far, though it said it had "stemmed the leak significantly".
One of the wells at the Gannet oilfield has been closed, but the company would not say if production was reduced.
The company says it has sent a clean-up vessel to the location and has a plane monitoring the surface.
The leak was found in a flow line connecting an oil well to the platform.
"We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Shell-operated Gannet Alpha platform. We deployed a remote-operated vehicle to check for a subsea leak after a light sheen was noticed in the area," said a Shell spokesman.
"We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it. The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being de-pressurised," he added.
'Finite amount'The company confirmed the leak was continuing but said it was being significantly reduced.
A spokesperson for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "We are aware of the incident and we are contact with Shell and we investigating it in the usual way but from what our understanding from Shell, is that there is a finite amount of oil that can be dispersed."
The spokesperson stressed that regulators were taking the leak seriously.
The Health and Safety executive confirmed they are monitoring the situation.
It is unknown how much oil may already have been spilt.
The Gannet oil field reportedly produced around 13,500 barrels of oil per day between January and April of this year.
The field is co-owned by Esso, a subsidiary of US oil firm Exxon but operated by Shell.
No comments:
Post a Comment