Oil Spill Halts Loadings from Statoil's Statfjord A Platform

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.

"All loadings are stopped, but we don't see a need to stop the production as we have good storage capacity and flexibility to reroute oil from the field via integrated pipeline system."

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.