4th Oct 2016 11:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - BP PLC has confirmed that it suffered an oil spill in the UK North Sea after a technical fault on the company's Clair platform caused both oil and water to escape into the sea over the weekend.
The spill occurred on Sunday morning, exactly two weeks after the UK release of the 'Deepwater Horizon' movie about the company's disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 that severely damaged BP's reputation and cost the company around USD61.60 billion.
BP was keen to draw a line under the 2010 incident after agreeing final settlements over a number of different claims earlier this year.
The Clair platform lies around 75.0 kilometres west of Shetland and the spill was caused by a technical issue with the system designed to separate the mixed production fluids of water, oil and gas.
"The release was stopped within an hour once the issue had been identified and Clair production was taken offline. We are investigating the cause of the technical issue and the field will remain offline for the time being," said BP in a statement on Monday.
Experts in environmental matters and oil spills have gathered from BP, Oil Spill Response Ltd and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in order to collectively evaluate the potential damage and impact of the spill as they attempt to agree the best way forward.
Notably, BP said the current consensus is that the "most appropriate response is to allow the oil to disperse naturally at sea" but said contingencies for other action are being prepared.
Current estimates using data taken from the platform forecast around 95 tonnes of oil has leaked into the sea - the equivalent of around 675 barrels.
"Both direct observation from surveillance flights and oil spill modelling continue to show the oil moving in a northerly direction away from land," said BP. "The most recent surveillance flight already indicates significant dispersal of the oil at the surface."
The Clair field is currently one of two major developments being undertaken by BP in the UK North Sea and the field is currently undergoing its second phase of development. BP said in its 2015 results that it owned a 28.6% stake in the field alongside partners Royal Dutch Shell PLC, ConocoPhillips and Chevron.
The first phase of development was sanctioned in 2001 and a single fixed platform was constructed before production started in February 2005. The field has so far produced at least 80.0 million barrels of oil since then and the current first phase equipment is expected to continue going until 2028.
Oil and gas is exported via pipelines to the Sullom Voe terminal on Shetland where it is processed for onward use.
The current phase of work, Clair Ridge, is focusing on targeting the part of the field to the north of the area targeted during the first phase.
The second phase of development was pursued as the Clair field, according to BP, is the largest undeveloped hydrocarbon resource on the UK Continental Shelf with around 8.00 billion barrels of oil in place - a large chunk of the 20.00 billion barrels thought to be left in the UK North Sea as a whole.
The second phase of work is expected to allow production to last until at least 2050 and BP and its partners are targeting the 640.0 million barrels of resources thought to be currently recoverable from Clair Ridge - which is expected to start producing next year and eventually hit a peak of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
BP shares were up 1.8% to 466.55 pence per share on Tuesday afternoon whilst Shell 'A' shares were up 2.4% to 1,999.0 pence and 'B' shares were up 2.7% to 2,098.0 pence.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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