Gas leak shuts down North sea platforms

AN INVESTIGATION is continuing into the cause of a gas leak that resulted in the shutdown of production from three North Sea oil and gas installations.

A total of 92 oil workers on the North Cormorant platform, operated by Taqa Bratani, were evacuated in the early hours of Sunday morning following a gas alert on the installation, 110 miles north-east of Shetland.

Production was also shut down as a precautionary measure at the neighbouring Tern and Eider platforms, which also feed their hydrocarbon production into the North Cormorant installation.

A spokeswoman for Taqa announced yesterday: “Taqa will begin re-manning of North Cormorant as soon as logistically possible and expects to have all personnel back on board by end of this week.”