Floating Barge Stops Production at North Sea Platforms

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--A number of oil and gas platforms at the Valhall oilfield in the North Sea were forced to stop production after a massive barge broke free of a tugboat and threatened to collide with the rigs.

BP plc (NYSE:BP) (London, England) announced that production was halted at the eight platforms and around 235 workers were evacuated by air as a precaution. The barge, which came loose while being towed during Storm Frank, missed the rigs by two kilometers and is now floating toward the Norwegian coast. The barge also forced ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) (Houston, Texas) to stop production at its Eldfisk and Embla complexes, which lie north of Vahlhall. The company evacuated a total of 145 workers.

The barge, owned by Eide Marine Group (Roysanes, Norway), is 110 meters long and weighs 15,000 tonnes and became unattached from a tugboat in rough weather. The barge, which can sink below the waves to load oil rigs and other cargo before refloating itself, has two 24-tonne cranes on deck.

Both BP and ConocoPhillips said production should resume within 24 hours.

"We have shut production down on Valhall as a precautionary measure," BP told news media. "We have taken some of the workers to nearby platforms so that they can get production back up quickly when the situation improves."

Valhall is a huge oilfield in the southern Norwegian North Sea, where production started in 1982. It produces about 50,000 barrels per day.

The evacuations came one day after a worker on the COSL Innovator rig in the Troll oilfield, also located in the Norwegian North Sea, died after an 18-meter wave broke over the rig. The rig is owned by Norway's oil and gas giant, Statoil ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavangar, Norway) and China Oilfield Services Limited (COSL) (SHA:601808) (Beijing).

"It is with sorrow that Statoil and COSL has received confirmation from the police that one person has deceased after a huge wave hit the COSL Innovator rig today," Statoil said.

"This is very, very sad," stated Jorgen Andersen, chief executive of COSL Drilling Europe. "A wave surge had built up and hit the rig, and shattered some of the windows in the accommodation module, 16 to 17 meters (52 to 55 feet) above the sea level."

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