Cormorant Alpha Leak Shuts Down North Sea Brent System

DUBAI, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi oil company TAQA said it had no restart date for oil output stopped after a leak at its North Sea Cormorant Alpha oil platform, linked into Britain’s 20-field Brent system.

“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 barrels per day, 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 and is located 232 miles from Peterhead and 94 miles from Lerwick.

Cormorant Alpha also handles oil from the Dunlin, Thistle, Northern producer, Murchison, North Alwyn, Tern, Eider and North Cormorant Platforms.

The Brent System is responsible for transporting oil from around 20 North Sea oilfields, accounting for about 37 percent of the Sullom Voe Terminal input and around 8 percent of British offshore oil production.

(Reporting by Amena Bakr; Editing by Richard Mably and William Hardy)

(c) 2013 Thomson Reuters, Click For Restrictions

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