STATOILHYDRO ASA, the Nordic region's largest oil and natural-gas producer, shut down 138,000 barrels a day of oil production from three platforms in the North Sea following a leak.
Production was stopped at the Statfjord A, Snorre A and Vigdis platforms in the North Sea after a leak at the Statfjord rig, Stavanger, Norway-based Statoil spokesman Ola Morten Aanestad said on Saturday. Oil is pumped from Snorre A and Vigdis via Statfjord A, he said.
The platforms were shut down after an oil leak in a storage cell in one of Statfjord A's shafts. The leak now has been stopped, Aanestad said.
Bloomberg News reported Statfjord A pumps about 19,000 barrels a day of oil while Snorre A produces about 75,000 barrels a day. Vigdis pumps about 44,000 barrels a day.
Oil from Vigdis is normally transported via the Gullfaks system and may be rerouted there, Aanestad said. The company has "no estimation" for when production from the two other platforms will resume, he said.
About 1,200 cubic meters of a mixture containing oil and water were discharged into the sea from the Statfjord "A" platform "for safety reasons," Statoil said on its Website. The discharge has stopped and the amount of oil in the mixture was "limited," the company said.
There is a "thin oil film" around the platform and steps are being taken to collect it, according to the statement. The weather conditions at the platform are "good," it said. The storage cells on the Statfjord A platform contain about 1.3 million barrels of oil, according to the StatoilHydro Website.
The Statfjord A platform on December 12 was involved in Norway's biggest spill since 1977, when 24,100 barrels of oil leaked into the North Sea from a tanker.