90 Workers Evacuated From Gullfaks Platform; Statoil Claims Safety Equipment Cutting Gas Pressure

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Ninety oil workers have been evacuated from a North Sea rig as engineers fight to control a huge build up of pressure in a well which critics say has the potential to blow-up the platform and cause a major environmental problem. The Norwegian company Statoil has been pumping cement into an offshore well on the Gullfaks field in an operation similar to the one being attempted today by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

The equivalent of around 70,000 barrels of oil a day of production from the Gullfaks C, Tordis and Gimle platforms has been shut down and more than 90 staff evacuated from the area, which lies in Norwegian waters. The country's industry regulator said it was the third well control incident on Gullfaks in the past six months.

Jake Molloy, offshore organiser of the RMT union in Aberdeen, said the case also highlighted the continuing dangers of oil extraction off Britain's coast. He added: "The huge gas bubble under the Gullfaks has the potential to threaten the platform."

However, Statoil said today that the well was being brought under control. "We had a build-up in pressure and the barriers (through the blowout preventer) worked as they should. We are now pumping cement into the well and the pressure is starting to fall," said Kai Neilsen, a spokesman for the oil group in London.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/27/north-sea-oil-rig-gas-threat

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1. K & R. n/t