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Tag: north sea

  • Over 300 people evacuated from oil rig

    Over 300 people evacuated from oil rig

    Oil rig in the northern sea

    Norway’s state-owned energy giant Statoil on Wednesday evacuated around 330 people from a North Sea platform off the coast of Norway after it began listing.

    “Around 330 people were evacuated and we’re halting the evacuation at this stage,” said Einar Knudsen, a spokesman for the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Southern Norway. Just over 40 people were to stay on the rig for security work, he added.

    The Floatel Superior, effectively a floating hotel for staff working on the neighbouring Njord A production platform, was evacuated after the rig had tilted four degrees due to a leak in one of the ballast tanks, Statoil said.

    The rupture appeared to have been caused by a collision with an anchor.

    The Njord A itself, which lies about 50 nautical miles from land, is currently closed for maintenance, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

    The rig was stabilized an hour later after other ballast tanks were partially flooded to balance it, but as a safety precaution all non-essential personnel, meaning the vast majority of the 374 people on board, were evacuated.

    “We normally have two layers of protection against leaks, and since there remained only one, we decided to bring non-essential personnel to safety,” group spokesman Ola Anders Skauby told AFP.

    “We take the situation seriously,” he said, adding that it was normal to prepare for a worst case scenario.

    Six helicopters were deployed to the area, in difficult weather, according to the rescue centre. Employees were airlifted from the Floatel to Njord A, Knudsen said.

    Source:
    The Local

  • Major oil well in the North Sea

    Major oil well in the North Sea

    Map of North Sea

    High quality oil reserve has been found in the North Sea. Statoil and its partners are responsible for the found, described as a “reservoir of excellent quality.”

    The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

    Statoil expects the well to deliver between 200 and 400 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) from the 65 metre deep oil column. The company also expects additional upside in the licence both north and south of the discovery.

    Exploration and drilling in the area has already taken place with the Aldous Major North Well being one of the favourites for high volumes of oil potential. Statoil is the major stakeholder in the area but Petro, Det norske oljeselskap and Lundin also have stakes in the area.

  • North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum meeting in Iceland

    North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum meeting in Iceland

    The Annual meeting of the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum is being held in Akureyri Iceland between 29.september- 2. October. At the same time and location a extensive exercise which simulates a cruise liner that runs ashore.

    Meeting:

    GreenlandThe North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum is a cooperation initiated by Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Approximately 80 persons will attend the meeting. Members to the cooperation are now Russia, United States, Canada and 17 European countries. The main themes of the organizations are categorized into seven categorize which are Safety issues at sea, narcotics trafficking, illegal immigrants, monitoring fishing, search and rescue and cooperation on technology. This year’s chairmanship is in the hands of Iceland’s coastguard director Georgs Kr. Lárusson. The emphasis over the last couple of years been that increased cooperation is of high importance so response to emergencies can be swift and coordinated.

    Exercise:

    cruise

    An extensive exercise was conducted in conjunction with the meeting that simulates a large cruise liner that runs ashore. This scenario is very relevant to the current state of affairs in the North Atlantic, Arctic Ocean and in actually Antarctica as cruise ships are rapidly reaching further into the North as sea ice declines. There have been considerable concerns that if anything would happen to these ships, engine break down or a breach in the hull due to sea ice could have drastic consequences. The rescue capacities needed to deal with a large cruise liner with 2-3000 people are immense and depending of the exact location of the incident the resources in form of rescue vessels, airplanes and helicopters possible nowhere near being enough.

    In 2008 it is estimated that 70 cruise liners traveled to Greenland with over 150.000 passengers. None of these vessels are ice strengthened and despite a decline in sea ice there is still plenty of it and does pose a threat. Furthermore concerns have been voiced that standard lifeboats found on all cruse liners may not be able to sustain life for long enough in Ice filed waters. There have been hopes that the IMO will address some of these issues in a polar shipping code.

    Patrol boatThe exercise in Akureyri Iceland is very welcome and focuses on both the rescue and evacuation of people as well as pollution prevention. Participants include a Norwegian coast guard ship, Danish coast guard ship equipped with a helicopter, Icelandic Coastguard ship, airplane and a helicopter. Furthermore 3 local rescue ships and local rescue and environmental personnel are involved.