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BP and ConocoPhillips Evacuate North Sea Platforms After Barge Goes Adrift Adrift North Sea Barge, Forcing Evacuation of Oil Platforms, Is Secured
(34 minutes later)
LONDON — Violent weather in the North Sea has set loose a 360-foot-long barge, prompting the oil companies BP and ConocoPhillips to evacuate hundreds of workers from two oil platforms and to temporarily halt production. LONDON — A 360-foot-long barge that was set loose by violent weather in the North Sea was secured on Thursday, after the oil companies BP and ConocoPhillips evacuated hundreds of workers from two oil platforms and temporarily halted production.
As of Thursday morning, the barge had drifted past one of the oil installations, but efforts to secure the vessel as it drifted toward the Norwegian coast continued, said Borghild Eldoen, a spokeswoman for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Stavanger, Norway. As of 1:30 p.m. in Norway, the barge was around 50 miles off the coast. The barge drifted past one of the oil installations as it moved toward the Norwegian coast earlier in the day, said Borghild Eldoen, a spokeswoman for the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Stavanger, Norway. “It was a dramatic situation for some hours,” she said.
“It’s heading northeast and has been holding a steady course for the last four hours,” Ms. Eldoen said in a telephone interview. “It was a dramatic situation for some hours. There is still no control of the barge, but the owners are still trying to get control of it.” Georg Eide, the chairman of Eide Marine Services, the Norwegian company that owns the barge, said the vessel was brought under control and was being towed toward Norway.
BP began evacuating staff members at its giant Valhall oil field on Wednesday night after learning that the barge — owned by Eide Marine, based in Hoylandsbygd, Norway — had broken loose and was heading toward the complex, according to Toby Odone, a BP spokesman. The barge, which is used to transport cargo, was returning to Norway from Tunisia after the completion of a project carried out on behalf of the German Navy when the tow line broke in “extreme weather” in the North Sea on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Eide said in an email.
Around 235 employees were airlifted from the oil field on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, he said. The company said Thursday afternoon that the barge had missed hitting the oil field by less than a mile, and that the operations — gross production is around 50,000 barrels a day — would resume. “The weather was so bad that it was impossible to reconnect it to the emergency tow line,” Mr. Eide said, adding that the company’s emergency response team had been “working through the night to coordinate and source other vessels and resources to help us in retrieving the barge.”
ConocoPhillips, which has two oil fields, Eldfisk and Embla, farther away, also halted production and evacuated 145 employees, of whom 95 were taken to shore and the rest to other installations, according to Stig S. Kvendseth, a company spokesman. As a precaution, BP evacuated staff members at its giant Valhall oil field on Wednesday night after learning that the barge was heading toward the complex, said Toby Odone, a spokesman for the company.
Officials at Eide Marine did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Around 235 employees were airlifted from the oil field on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, he said. The company said Thursday afternoon that the barge had missed hitting the oil field by less than a mile, and that operations there — gross production is around 50,000 barrels a day — would resume.
ConocoPhillips, which has two oil fields, Eldfisk and Embla, farther away, also halted production and evacuated 145 employees, of whom 95 were taken to shore and the rest to other installations, said Stig S. Kvendseth, a company spokesman.