Oil major Shell has been fined £22,500 after admitting failures that led to an oil leak in the North Sea.
The leak, the biggest in a decade in the North Sea, was discovered on 10 August 2011, when oil was spotted on the sea surface near Shell’s Gannet F field, in the central North Sea, 180km from Aberdeen.
The level of the fine was criticized by environmental organization the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which said the size of the fine would “do little to deter future poor behaviour” by oil and gas companies to avoid more damage to the environment.
The Gannet complex comprises a fixed drilling and production platform for the Gannet A, B, C, D, E, F and G fields, with subsea wellheads tied back to the facility for all but the A field.
An initial report said the leak covered a sea area about 4.5km-long and 100m-wide, in 95m water depth.
The oil release was subsequently observed to be leaking from a subsea relief valve attached to the Gannet F pipeline bundle in near the Gannet F towhead protection structure.
The leak was halted on 19 August 2011 when the relief valves were manually isolated and closed by divers. Shell subsequently estimated to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that a total of 218-tonne of oil was released to sea during the incident.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and DECC carried out a joint investigation into the incident which concluded that the 8in Gannet F oil production pipeline within the pipeline bundle had failed.
As a result, crude oil entered the insulated area between the production pipeline and its sleeve and was ultimately released to sea through the relief valves.
It concluded there was no significant environmental impact or any risk that anyone would be harmed.
HSE served two Improvement Notices relating to processes during the investigation following the pipeline failure, which Shell subsequently complied with.
Shell UK admitted breaching the Regulation 3A of the Offshore Petroleum Activities (Oil Pollution Prevention & Control) Regulations 2005 and Regulation 13 of the Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996 and was fined a total of £22,500 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Oil from the Gannet complex is pumped by the nearby Fulmar A platform and exported cia the Norpipe export system to Tesside, England. Gas is exported to Gannet diverter then piped via Fulmar gas pipeline to St Fergus.
Image: Gannet Alpha
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