Norway's daily oil production has been shut down by 4 percent after a gas leak in Statoil?s North Sea oil production platform.
180 workers were evacuated, and the leak in floating Snorre A platform was contained Monday afternoon, nearly 18 hours after it was reported, according to Statoil spokesman Oeivind Reinertsen.
Meanwhile, US oil firm Marathon Oil Corp. said production on its North Sea Brae Alpha platform remained closed after a gas leak there on Saturday forced it to shut down, cutting its 36,000 barrels a day of production.
The gas leaks, which were unrelated, resulted in the stopping of 130,000 barrels a day on Statoil's platform, or a 4 percent reduction in Norway's daily production of about 3.2 million barrels a day. The platform processes another 75,000 barrels a day in production from the nearby Vigdis field, but it wasn't clear if that oil was being routed to another platform.
Norway's petroleum ministry said the shutdown would not affect its oil exports since it has sufficient reserves.
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Statoil Sustains Losses
Norway's daily oil production has been shut down by 4 percent