Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Nov. 13 -- StatoilHydro did not cause any obvious harm to the environment with the December 2007 oil spill from the Statfjord platform in the Norwegian North Sea, according to the environmental report on the spill.
The investigation was carried out by Sintef, the Institute of Marine Research, StatoilHydro, and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.
The 4,400 cu m spill, which was the largest on the Norwegian continental shelf, began disappearing 3 days later from the sea's surface. Analyses from Sintef show that after a couple of days, 25% of the oil had evaporated, and 15% had dissolved. The rest of the oil had been mixed into the churning water as droplets, gradually dissolving and eaten by the ocean's own bacteria.
"No harm to the environment close to Statfjord has been proven, even though the oil spill was a very serious incident," said Eva Oglaend Bjornestad, environmental coordinator for Statfjord. "More than 170 fish samples have been analyzed without any traces of oil being found in the fish fillets," says Bjorn Einar Grosvik of the IMR.
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
