A hydrocarbon leak recorded at TAQA Bratani operated Cormorant Alpha platform on North Sea and its subsequent maintenance has kept Brent crude-oil pipeline system remained closed on Monday.
TAQA identified the leak in one of the platform legs, the second leak in 2013, on Saturday morning during maintenance work and shut the platform and the Brent pipeline system, as a precautionary measure.
The pipeline system supplies 100,000 barrels a day of the benchmark crude from North Sea fields to the export terminal at Sullom Voe, in the Shetland Islands, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Until the system is fully functional, oil from 27 fields, which flows through the platform, will be on hold, which has also hit the UK natural-gas industry.
Total SA’s St. Fergus terminal, north of Aberdeen, which supplies an average 21% of the gas, used in Britain each day, is not able to operate as a result of the closure of the pipeline system.
The news agency quoted a Total spokesman in an email statement as saying, "The problem at Cormorant Alpha means we can’t export our condensates and, as it isn’t possible to produce gas without condensates, we have had to stop all hydrocarbon export from [our fields at] Alwyn [which flows to St. Fergus]…this has been the case since Saturday morning."
TAQA in a press release said it has evacuated 71 non-essential personnel from the platform through crew change flights, while at present everyone is safe and well.
The Cormorant Alpha platform is located 232 miles from Peterhead 94 miles from Lerwick.
In January 2013, Taqa Bratani was forced to shut down the Cormorant Alpha and partially evacuate the platform as a result of a similar incident.