A fire yesterday on one of BP’s oil production platforms operating in the North Sea has halted the company’s production from the Valhall field.
The fire prompted the evacuation of hundreds of workers, but BP said there was no risk of oil spills, according to a Reuters report.
“Production is shut in and there is no risk for an oil spill,” BP spokesman Jan Erik Geirmo told Reuters. “It is serious when you have a fire on a production platform and the cause of this is something we need to investigate… and it’s too early for us to speculate.”
“But it is quite clear that it was a serious incident.”
The blaze began in a compressor on Valhall’s production platform around 1500 GMT yesterday, and has been extinguished, Geirmo said.
It is uncertain when the field will restart, Geirmo said.