Statoil gas platform shut down after leak

Today, a gas leak shut down production at a North Sea natural gas platform operated by Statoil ASA, the company said.

Production was halted at the unmanned Sleipner B platform after an alarm alerted workers at a nearby processing facility to the leak, Statoil spokesman Gisle Johanson said. He could not say how long the shutdown would last.

Johanson said some 200 workers at the processing plant Sleipner A were briefly put in lifeboats, but returned to work after emergency workers stopped the leak.

Sleipner B, 150 miles (240 kilometers) off Norway’s southwestern coast, will remain offline while the cause of the leak is investigated, Johanson said. He declined to estimate how long that would take.

Gas production at the main platform, Sleipner A, was not affected, he said.

Sleipner B accounted for 16 percent of total production from the Sleipner gas field in January to October, or about 37,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Norwegian energy officials said.

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Source: Bloomberg