Inquiry into Shell oil spill

THE SCOTTISH government has promised to set up an inquiry into the leakage of at last 100 tonnes of oil from a pipeline 112 miles east of Aberdeen.

Oil giant Shell reported oil was leaking from a pipe connected to the Gannet Alpha platform on Friday, though reports have come in that oil sheens were first seen on Wednesday.

Over the weekend the company said the amount of oil being released into the sea had been “considerably reduced” and was “under control”.

Shell issued a statement on Saturday saying the sheen covered an area measuring 31 by 4.3 kilometres and that they had launched a remote operated vehicle (ROV) to investigate the extent of the problem.

A vessel with dispersant and oil spill control equipment is on standby, but the undersea well has been shut down and the pipe has been de-pressurised, which should ensure the leak is contained.

However the company came under criticism from wildlife charity WWF Scotland, whose director Richard Dixon said Shell should release the pictures taken from their ROV to ensure “transparency”.

Environmentalists believe that the sheen could only account for a fraction of the oil that has actually entered the North Sea and have called for more information to help prepare for any impact on wildlife.

On Friday Shell also announced that production had started on its Brent field 150 miles north east of Shetland after a seven month shutdown for safety reasons. Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo have started production, while Brent Delta and Charlie will start production later.

The leak comes shortly after the industry claimed that an exercise to deploy a well capping device west of Shetland carried out last month was successful.

The exercise was carried out to make sure the industry could respond in the event of a blow out like last year’s Gulf of Mexico disaster occurred in the north Atlantic.

Footage of the exercise can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/oilandgasuk?feature=creators_cornier-http%3A//s.ytimg.com/yt/img/creators_corner/Watch_me_on_YouTube/90x15_watchon_blue.pn