Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Statoil’s emergency center has responded to a hydrogen sulfide (H2S) alarm from the Statfjord C platform in the Norwegian North Sea.
Production at Statfjord C has been shut down, and the company says the situation is under control. The leak point that triggered the alarm in the utility shaft was identified as a flange to the wall against a storage cell.
The H2S release derived from water containing the toxic gas.
“The water has leaked from a flange, and we’re working to find out how it can be halted,” said Dag Petter Berg, operations vice president for Statfjord. “At present, only fresh seawater is escaping.”
The water in the storage cell which holds both oil and water – H2S forms when water is in contact with crude, and occurs naturally in the cells, Statoil points out. The cell has since been refilled with fresh seawater to eliminate the source of the gas escape.
Statoil has accounted for all 236 personnel on the platform are all accounted for. Emergency response services, i.e. boats and helicopters, have been demobilized.
3/16/2012
