TAQA Shuts Down North Sea Platform

18 Jan 2013 Issue: 56 / 3

State-owned Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) is starting up one of its platforms in the North Sea, which it shut down earlier this week, after discovering oil inside a platform leg.

Cormorant Alpha processes about 90,000 b/d of crude. There has been no environmental spill, the company said.“TAQA can confirm that an indication of hydrocarbons was detected in one of the legs of the Cormorant Alpha platform in the northern UK North Sea on January 14,” the company said in a statement on its website. The platform and the pipeline infrastructure have been shut down as a precautionary measure – there has been no leak to the environment or any injuries to the 159 workers, TAQA said.

The UK arm of the firm, Taqa Bratani Ltd, owns and operates the platform, which is connected by a 150km pipeline to BP-operated Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetland Islands, off the coast of Northern Scotland. TAQA owns a 24% share of the terminal. It is part of the Brent system which transports oil from North Sea fields and is jointly owned by some 20 companies. (CONTINUED - 425 WORDS)