Broken Hose Causes Oil Spill in North Sea

Broken hose causes oil spill in North Sea

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) — The oil spill from a platform operated by Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro in North Sea Wednesday was the result of a broken underwater hose, the Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported Saturday.

This was determined when a mini-sub was sent down to try to find the cause of the leak by StatoilHydro.

The hose, which is used to bring the crude oil from the buoy tothe tanker, is a 19-inch steel reinforced rubber hose, but the cause of break was not immediately determined, it added.

About 4,000 standard cubic meters of crude oil was spilled intothe sea Wednesday, when a tanker was loading oil from the platform,about 200 km west of the Norwegian second largest city Bergen, StatoilHydro said.

So far, the spilled oil has been forced northward by the wind, and no oil has reached the coast. The spill was the second worst in Norway’s offshore history. The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research has been assigned to investigate the environmental impactby means of water column samples and mapping of bird life in the area.

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