North sea platform emergency shut down following alarm

LONDON – The Oseberg oil-field center in the Norwegian North Sea is closed following the activation of an alarm Monday morning, with no indication as to when production might resume.

The Oseberg field contributes one of the four key grades to the BFOE basket of crudes against which much of the world’s oil is priced.

A spokesman for Statoil ASA, which operates the field, said Monday: “Oseberg field center is down due to a gas alarm that went off this morning. We do not know the cause or how long it will be down.”

The spokesman didn’t reply immediately as to how much capacity was affected. The field center consists of three platforms from which both oil and natural gas are extracted.

In July, 135,000 barrels of oil are due to be exported from Oseberg each day. This is lower than the June amount, set to be 160,000 barrels a day, according to loading programs.

July’s program comprises seven 600,000-barrel cargoes with a total volume of 4.2 million barrels.