DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Taqa has no restart date for oil output stopped after a leak at its Cormorant Alpha platform, a part of Britain’s major North Sea Brent pipeline system.
The entire system was expected to export around 135,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil this month, around 8 percent of British offshore oil production.
“Taqa is currently evaluating plans to restore the throughput of an estimated 80,000 bpd in the Brent pipeline, excluding any Cormorant Alpha production,” the company said in a statement.
Taqa said on Tuesday it had found an oil leak in one of the legs of Cormorant Alpha, closing the platform and the pipeline system that handles a total of 90,000 bpd, including 10,000 bpd from Cormorant Alpha across several oilfields that contribute to Brent blend. “The repairs are complicated because the defective area of the leg is hard to reach,” said a Taqa spokesman.
Taqa said none of the oil had been released into the environment and investigations continued to discover the source of the leak. “Measurements within the leg show that the volume released is small,” said the statement.
The installation is owned and operated by the UK arm of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, Taqa Bratani Ltd.
Cormorant Alpha also handles oil from the Dunlin, Thistle, Northern producer, Murchison, North Alwyn, Tern, Eider and North Cormorant Platforms.
Shell UK said that the shutdown has not had any direct impact on its Brent Field installations, and offered to help Taqa with the repairs.
The Brent system is jointly owned by 21 companies. It consists of part of the processing systems and structure on the Cormorant Alpha platform, operated by Taqa, as well as a 150km pipeline connecting Cormorant Alpha to the BP operated Sullom Voe Oil Terminal in the Shetland Islands. Reuters
