Statoil reports oil spill of Norway coast

The company discovered the spill when loading oil from the Statfjord A platform to the tanker Hilda Knutsen through the OLS B loading buoy, located between Statfjord A and Statfjord B.

Statoil said it has notified relevant authorities about the incident.

Production at the platform was not halted, but tanker loading has been suspended. According to preliminary information the spill happened due to leak in flange of the loading hose.

In January past year, the company shut down operations at the Statfjord C platform after emergency systems detected an oil leak.

A standby vessel, equipped with oil spill response equipment was already on location, and is assisting with the cleanup, as is a Norwegian SAR helicopter. “It is also too early to say how much oil has leaked”, said in official statement Statoil.

Statfjord came on stream in 1979, and at its peak produced 700,000 barrels of oil per day, and has been operated by Statoil since 1987. The Statfjord A platform can store up to 1.3 million barrels of oil.

At the time of the spill, oil was being bunkered onboard the Hilda Knutsen oil tanker. The local authorities started investigation for the root cause of oil leak.

Statfjord is one of the oldest producing fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, and the largest oil discovery in the North Sea; the field’s oil is loaded onto tankers and shipped to ports in northwestern Europe.