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Oil slick off Norwegian coast dissolving: authorities
OSLO
Petroleumworld.com 14 12 07Bad weather has prevented the clean-up of thousands of tonnes of oil spilled near a North Sea platform, but the slick was dissolving on its own and was not likely to reach the Norwegian coast, authorities said Thursday.
"Within two days, 81 percent of the oil should dissolve into the water masses and 16 percent should evaporate," Norwegian Coastal Administration spokeswoman Ane Eide Kjaeraas told AFP, referring to estimates by Norwegian research group SINTEF.
The 3,360 tonnes of oil that spilled into the North Sea on Wednesday had spread across 23 square kilometres (nine square miles), said Norwegian oil giant StatoilHydro, which operates the Statfjord A platform where the accident happened.
The slick was being pushed in a northeastern direction by strong winds and currents.
"According to our calculations, it is very improbable that (the oil slick) will reach the coast," company spokesman Gisle Johanson told AFP.
Kjaeraas agreed: "We should avoid a (lasting) oil slick and a soiling of the coast."
Four rescue and recovery ships and four tugboats were on stand-by Thursday, but weather conditions were too difficult to begin pumping up the spilled petroleum, StatoilHydro said.
"There are near gale conditions in the area, the wave height being between four and five metres (13-16 feet)," the company said in a statement, adding that weather conditions were not likely to improve until late Thursday at the earliest.
Kjaeraas said the strong winds and high waves were acting "as a huge centrifuge" that was disintegrating the slick and dissolving the light oil into tiny particles easily absorbed into the ocean's ecosystem.
Since the oil was dissolving, StatoilHydro said it had "decided not to apply chemical dispersants to the oil slick."
While nature appeared to be handling most of the clean-up after the spill, Kjaeraas insisted that "StatoilHydro still must clean up the damage once the weather improves."
Environmental group Green Warriors of Norway meanwhile said Thursday it would file suit against StatoilHydro over the spill, and raised questions about the amount of oil that had leaked into the sea.
"Based on earlier experience it is not unthinkable that the spill is larger than what so far has been estimated," it said in a statement.
The leak occurred Wednesday morning in a pipe between the platform and a loading buoy, where the tanker Navion Britannica had docked to load up.
Production on the platform continued, but the pipe and buoy were shut down to prevent any further leaks.
In terms of volume, Wednesday's spill was the second-largest in Norway's history.
The Scandinavian country's largest spill happened in 1977 when a blow-out on the Ekofisk Bravo platform released some 10,000 tonnes of oil into the North Sea.
The Statfjord oilfield where the latest accident occurred is one of Norway's largest and is located some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Bergen, on the boundary between the Norwegian and British sectors of the North Sea.
Norway is the world's 10th-largest oil producer.
Story by Pierre-Henry Deshayes from AFP
AFP 131419 GMT 12 07
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