Coast Guard: Shell line leaks 88200 gallons into the Gulf

Officials are investigating the cause of the leak, but Ms Windon said it is likely to have been caused by the release of oil from the subsea infrastructure.

In 2010, BP PLC suffered a huge oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico following an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that was on the Macondo prospect.

Shell said Thursday night that a company helicopter spotted the sheen near its Glider subsea system at the Brutus platform. The flow line is connected to four wells and Shell’s Brutus platform.

The BSEE estimated on Thursday that the total subsea release from the four wells was 2,100 barrels of oil.

Shell said it observed oil sheen near its production facilities in the Green Canyon oil reserve area in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell said it is working with the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association “to define the best approach to contain and clean up the sheen”.

On Friday, Shell said it sent a remotely operated vehicle down to the seafloor to inspect where the leak came from and found a flow line as the source. Fischer said that Shell notified all appropriate authorities and mobilized response vessels, including aircraft, in the event the discharge is recoverable. According to Shell, production from all wells that flow to its Brutus platform had been shut off.

“No release is acceptable, and safety remains our priority as we respond to this incident”, the company said. According to a press release from that year, the Brutus TLP was Shell’s first deepwater platform to be specifically created to serve as a hub for future subsea developments in the surrounding area.