Lifeboat problem shuts down oil platform
A defective lifeboat forced the partial evacuation of Norway’s Veslefrikk A offshore oil platform today, shutting down its 30,000 barrels-per-day production.
Part of the platform’s crew was flown by helicopter to another platform, after a lifeboat failed a routine test, Statoil ASA spokesman Harald Schjelderup said by telephone. Lifeboats are the crew’s key means of escape in an emergency.
He said the platform was shut down as a safety precaution. The platform, which normally has a crew of 107, had other lifeboats, so some crew could remain aboard. He did not have the exact numbers.
“It was nothing dramatic, but a matter of safety-first,” Schjelderup said.
Norway’s offshore fields make it the world’s third-largest oil exporter, after Saudi Arabia and Russia, with a capacity of about three million barrels-per-day
The spokesman could not say how long it would take to get a replacement lifeboat out to the North Sea platform, which is roughly 90 miles off Bergen, the main city on Norway’s west coast.
Schjelderup said Statoil was investigating whether the shutdown would delay the restart of the linked platform Huldra, with a capacity of 8,000 barrels per day plus natural gas, later today after a planned maintenance shutdown.
The unplanned stop comes hours before a strike threatened at most of Statoil’s fields, including Veslefrikk, unless a contract settlement was reached before tomorrow. A full strike could shut down nearly one million barrels-per-day of Norway’s production.
