Large oil spill in the North Sea

Source: Dagbladet (NO)

Large oil spill from North Sea platform


3840 m3 of oil has leaked from a loading point close to the Statfjord A platform into the sea.

The Petroleumstilsynet (state watchdog) has been alerted about a major oil spill near the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea.

- This is a very large oil spill, of 3840 cubic metres of raw oil. It is the second largest oil spill in Norwegian history, says press spokesperson Inger Anda in the Petroleumstilsynet to dagbladet.no

The oil spill occurred in connection with loading the tanker «Navion Britannica» from a loading point close to the platform.

- Now we're just trying to limit the damages. But there are strong winds in the area, so it is impossible to uses floating devices to limit the damage, says information director in StatoilHydro to dagbladet.no
(...)
- The reason seems to be a leak in an underwater oil pipe.
According to offshore.no, the leak has been stopped. The Petroleumstilsynet was alerted at around 12 noon, local time today.

EN link now available:
StatoilHydro spills 25,000 barrels of oil in N.Sea
Reuters Wednesday December 12 2007
OSLO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - About 25,000 barrels of oil spilled into the Norwegian sector of the North Sea near the Statfjord oilfield on Wednesday, field operator StatoilHydro and oil officials said.
"This could be the second largest spill in Norwegian oil history," the Petroleum Safety Authority's (PSA) spokeswoman, Inger Anda, said.
"During loading of oil from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea about 4,000 standard cubic metres of oil was released into the sea," Norwegian energy company StatoilHydro said in a statement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7146825


Read more: http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/12/12/520986.html

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Embarrasing, in the wake of the big environmental hubbub in Norway just now, and with the Bali conference going on.
The leader of the most prominent Norw. env. org. Bellona, Frederic Hauge, who are present at the Bali conference, says:
- This shows how difficult it is to be a nation of petroholics without spilling oil.

More related links, all Norw.
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/12/12/520990.html
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article2149523.ece
http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/artikkel.php?artid=189939

:cry:

Oil will be our downfall as a species if we don't find an alternative soon.

Instead, we're continuing to drill for fossil fuels off the coast of Brazil and in Canada. :(

From yesterday's paper:


(Dagbladet.no): A very unusual (Russian) military exercise in the North Sea created chaos for Norwegian oil rigs today.

Several helicopters from Norsk Helikopter and other companies who was freighting manpower and goods to platforms and rigs, was today airborne when they were told to return to the mainland. They could see Russian fighters jet past below their rotors.

Despite the fact that the exercise goes on in international waters, it created problems and Avinor (Norw. govt. air watchdog) chose to stop all helicopter traffic to the platforms Gullfaks and Statfjord.

An eyewitness has sendt a picture (see top) to dagbladet.no showing how close the Russian vessels came today. The picture shows the Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov with the Gullfaks platform in the background.

(NO):
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/12/11/520894.html

the double hulled tankers?