The Rogaland county public prosecutor has notified Statoil that it has been fined NOK 25 million following the oil leak from the Statfjord A loading buoy on 12 December 2007.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»˜We have noted the public prosecutorÂ鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™s decision,Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™ says Thorstein Hole, Vice President for the operations west cluster in Statoil. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»˜WeÂ鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™ll be taking time to study the grounds for the fine.Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™
Improvements since accident
According to Hole, extensive improvements have been implemented after the accident on the North Sea field, Hole reports. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»˜WeÂ鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™ve made changes to the way we plan and implement modifications, strengthened the maintenance programme and adopted more secure routines for offshore loading. Together with the shipping companies, weÂ鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™ve also implemented extensive upgrading work on 20 shuttle tankers we utilise on the Norwegian continental shelf.Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™
No identifiable harm to environment
More than 20 000 offshore loading operations have been conducted on the NCS over the past 30 years, including 7000 on Statfjord. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»˜The measures weÂ鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™ve adopted have enhanced loading robustness and security even further. Monitoring of these operations has also been improved, so that such incidents can be spotted early.Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»™ No identifiable harm was caused to the environment by the oil spill on Statfjord, according to a report from the Sintef Research Foundation, the Norwegian Institute for Marine Research and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.