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(isssource)
-- Total UK shut down oil and gas production from its North Sea Elgin/Franklin
platform and evacuated staff following a gas leak on Sunday, the company
said.
“Production has stopped,” Total UK said Monday, adding all 238
personnel are safe and no one sustained any injury.
An aerial
surveillance flight was to inspect a sheen reported in the vicinity of the
platform on Monday, Total added.
The peak production capability for the
Elgin/Franklin field is 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, 175,000
barrels per day condensate and 15.5 million cubic meters of gas per day (mcm/d),
Total said. The cause of the leak was still unknown and investigations were
ongoing, Total said.
On Monday morning, 150 non-essential personnel
evacuated to Aberdeen and a further 69 employees went to neighboring offshore
installations. Oil produced at the facility exports via the BP-operated Forties
Pipeline System to Kinneil in Scotland and gas flows through the SEAL pipeline
to Bacton in Norfolk.
Gas flow through the Bacton SEAL terminal fell by
around 10 (mcm/d) to 7 mcm/d early Monday, data provided by UK energy network
operator National Grid showed. |
