FIRST OIL SPILL FROM NEW ATLANTIC OILFIELD: TURN OFF THE TAPS, SAY GREENPEACE

FIRST OIL SPILL FROM NEW ATLANTIC OILFIELD: TURN OFF THE TAPS, SAY GREENPEACE 17 December 1997 Less than 2 weeks after proudly announcing that it was producing the first oil from its Foinaven Field in the Atlantic Frontier, BP suffered its first oil spill. On Tuesday 9th December the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel (the "Petrojarl Foinaven") was connected for offloading cargo oil to a shuttle tanker which was to transport the crude oil back to Flotta Oil Terminal in Orkney. A control system error led to a second offloading pump opening at the same time, which created an over-pressurisation of the system, blowing out gaskets from both the bow and stern ends of the piping system on the FPSO. The result was a spill of crude oil onto the deck and into the sea. Workers have told Greenpeace that they were "ankle deep" in crude oil for the entire length of the FPSO (250 metres). BP, who admit the spill, claim that only 50 litres of oil were involved. Despite the potentially serious nature of the incident and its polluting effects, the Health & Safety Executive did not attend the site until Monday 15th December. "We are not surprised that oil pollution has resulted from the operations at Foinaven," said Campaign Director Sarah Burton "only at how quickly the pollution occurred." Foinaven was due to come onstream in March 1996 but was delayed for 20 months by technical failures, and in August by Greenpeace activists occupying a repair vessel, the Stena Dee. On 26th November, BP finally announced that they had managed to start pumping oil from this, the first deep water platform in the Atlantic Frontier. Greenpeace has been campaigning against the creation of this new oilfield and all new oil exploration, on the grounds of climate protection. "We knew that the world could not afford to burn even a fraction of oil already available, and this shows that we cannot get oil from these deep water fields without grave risks to the environment," said Burton. "BP must now turn the taps off at Foinaven and concentrate on its Solar business, a business for the future." For Further Information
Contact Greenpeace Press Office on 0171 865 8255/6/7/8