Aircraft have been deployed to help monitor one of Norway’s biggest-ever oil spills after an offloading operation at the Statfjord field spilled 4,000 cubic metres of crude into the sea early Wednesday.
The spill occurred when the tanker Navion Britannica loaded oil from a loading buoy, a statement said. It’s the industry's second winter spill of oil from a loading buoy: the first occurred early in November at the Sakhalin II offshore project in the Russian Far East.
As at Sakhalin, winter wind and waves were cited near the buoy site. Winds of 45 knots and waves of 7 metres were recorded at Statfjord during the day. StatoilHydro said the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies was preparing emergency actions.
Statfjord is a Norway-UK border field 200 kilometres west of Bergen.
At Sakhalin II in mid-November, the Okha storage ship was forced to disengage a buoy damaged by severe weather. The result was an oil slick.
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