BP Monitoring North Sea Oil Spill -- 3rd Update
October 03 2016 - 2:26PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Kent
LONDON -- BP PLC is monitoring a spill in the North Sea after a
technical problem on a remote platform caused a leak and forced the
company to shut down production on Sunday.
The company said the leak from the Clair platform was the result
of an issue with the system designed to separate water, oil and gas
and lasted for an hour after the problem was detected. It estimated
that about 95 tons of oil -- roughly 700 barrels -- had spilled
into the sea. That is a fraction of the more than 3 million barrels
that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico after BP's fatal blowout in
2010.
Last year, Royal Dutch Shell PLC was fined GBP22,500, or around
$30,000, by a local Scottish court for a 2011 spill in the North
Sea roughly twice the size of the leak from the Clair platform.
Shell declined to comment.
BP said it is working with Oil Spill Response Limited and the
U.K.'s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to
assess the potential environmental impact and agree on the best way
to respond.
"At present, it is considered that the most appropriate response
is to allow the oil to disperse naturally at sea, but contingencies
for other action are being prepared," BP said. "The most recent
surveillance flight already indicates significant dispersal of the
oil at the surface."
A spokesman for BEIS said the department is working closely with
BP and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to resolve the incident.
"Safety is the government's number one priority," the spokesman
said in an emailed statement.
The Clair platform is located 75 kilometers west of the Shetland
Islands. The company said the spill seems to be moving away from
land at the moment.
Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 03, 2016 14:11 ET (18:11 GMT)
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