Statoil loses one million every day

Statoil will lose milionbeløp every day as long as the ban on oil drilling on the seabed remains in force,” said public affairs manager for Statoil in the U.S., Kjersti Hornes Torgersen.

President Barack Obama extended today the drilling ban by six months, or until the cause of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are clarified. He would rather give out new oil licenses in the next six months.

33 wells

33 deep water wells are affected by the ban, and Statoil is responsible for two of these wells.

Statoil said that drilling will be stopped as soon as technically possible to plug the wells again.

There was on 20 April this year that an oil rig sank in the Gulf of Mexico after a fire broke out on board. 11 people were killed, and two days later started a giant oil spill. Since then it has poured large quantities of oil from the well on the seabed.

BP has projected emissions to 5000 barrels a day, but U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that discharge could be as large as 19,000 barrels daily. But the exact amount is impossible to ascertain.

Stopped discharge

Today, BP may be able to stop the discharge, after several failed attempts in recent weeks. But the company dare not determine whether they really have managed to stop the leak until tomorrow night.

Source: NRK