Morten Eek News

Norway's Statoil has stopped all oil loadings from the Statfjord A platform in the North Sea after an oil spill occurred on Sunday, the company said on Monday, with no impact on production from the platform. "We had a minor leak while preparing to load on Sunday," said Statoil spokesman Morten Eek, who said that some 400 litres of crude had spilled. Sunday's leak is the second one in less than three weeks to occur at the platform. On Oct. 8, a spill shut loadings from one of two buoys. The latest spill shut loadings from the other buoy tankers could load from.

Japan is preparing to bolt turbines onto barges and build the world’s largest commercial power plant using floating windmills, tackling the engineering challenges of an unproven technology to cut its reliance on atomic energy. Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp. are among developers erecting a 16-megawatt pilot plant off the coast of Fukushima, site of the nuclear accident which pushed the government to pursue cleaner energy. The project may be expanded to 1,000 megawatts, the trade ministry said, larger than any wind farm fixed to the seabed or on land. “Japan is surrounded by deep oceans, and this poses challenges to offshore wind turbines attached to the bottom of the sea…