Small oil leak stops production at North Sea StatoilHydro platform

Oil leak shuts down StatoilHydro platform

OSLO — State-controlled Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro ASA was forced to shut down its Statfjord C offshore oil platform Friday after it leaked water contaminated by oil into the North Sea.

Statfjord C off Norway’s southwestern coast will remain offline until the cause of the leak is found, StatoilHydro spokesman Oeistein Johannessen said. He said it was not clear how long that will take.

He said the leak resulted in “a thin layer of oil” on the ocean surface that was 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide and two kilometers (1.2 miles) long. He said the spill appeared to have been stopped.

“We shut down the wells, and the discharge stopped,” Johannessen said.

Johannessen said production figures from Statfjord C were not immediately available, but that it supplies an “insignificant” share of the entire, mutliple-platform Statfjord field’s roughly 150,000 barrel per day capacity.

The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority was investigating the cause and extent of the slick, said Inger Anda, a spokesman for the government watchdog agency.

It was unclear whether the leak would lead to any repercussions for StatoilHydro.

On the Net:

www.statoilhydro.com

www.ptil.no