Oil Vessel on Alert After North Sea Pipeline Gas Leak

Published in Oil Industry News on Wednesday, 21 January 2015

An investigation is under way after a gas leak near an oil production ship in the North Sea.

Operator Shell planned to airlift the majority of the Curlew floating production vessel's 91 crew following the incident at the Fulmar Gas Line.
But bad weather 130 miles south east of Aberdeen prevented their evacuation on Monday night.

Plans to down-man the Curlew have now been shelved.

A Shell spokeswoman said: “A release of gas occurred from infrastructure in the vicinity of Shell’s Curlew vessel south east of Aberdeen late on Monday.

"A release of gas was detected several hundred meters away from the vessel at 11pm. Initial indications were that the escape had occurred from the subsea infrastructure close to the ship, which is connected to the Fulmar Gas Line exporting gas to the St Fergus terminal.
"Specialist divers from the Bibby Polaris dive support vessel are on site to close two valves which will isolate the Curlew from the Fulmar pipeline.

"In addition, another detailed investigation of the isolated infrastructure, adjacent to Curlew, will be undertaken by the Normand Subsea with an ROV.

"Once our initial investigation is completed - and we believe it is safe to do so - we will recommence gas export from the various producers connected to the Fulmar Gas line to the St Fergus Gas Plant."

North Sea fields supplying Fulmar have stopped exporting gas to the pipeline as a precaution while the investigation is carried out.

It is understood the Curlew was disconnected from the subsea infrastructure which connects it to Fulmar as part of routine maintenance when the leak occurred.