Norway says rig will remain shut down

The Associated Press

Norwegian authorities on April 15 ordered the offshore oil rig Eirik Raude to remain shut down until the cause of its third spill into ecologically fragile Arctic waters since February has been investigated.

The rig, owned by the Ocean Rig group and drilling for the Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA, was voluntarily shut down by Statoil immediately after the April 12 spill of 1.75 tons of hydraulic oil into the Barents Sea.

Norway has allowed oil companies to search for petroleum in the Barents Sea off northern Norway under strict rules, including no emissions into the Arctic waters.

Reactions to the latest spill were strong.

A news release from the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority, or PSA, said that it and the Norwegian pollution control board SFT had jointly ordered the rig to remain shut down while they investigate.

“The authorities take a very serious view of the April 12 discharge, not least since this is the third discharge from the facility during the course of the winter drilling campaign in the Barents Sea,” the April 15 news release said.

Statoil has said it also takes the spill very seriously, and was investigating, but declined comment on the ruling.

The Barents Sea north of Norway and Russia is rich in fish stocks and has a fragile cold water ecology. The ocean is believed to have vast oil and natural gas reserves, crucial for Norway to maintain levels of oil production that make the Nordic nation the world’s third largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The same rig had two leaks in February when it was drilling an exploration well for another Norwegian oil company, Norsk Hydro ASA. Neither was classed as environmentally damaging, but both violated the ban on emissions into the ocean, according to the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority. The latest spill did cause pollution, it said.

Statoil, founded by the government in 1972 to oversee Norway’s petroleum interests, employs 24,000 people in 29 countries.