Word: ekofisk
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...explosion and ensuing fire all but destroyed the rig. By last week estimates of the total loss ranged from just over 1 million bbl. to as much as 1.5 million bbl. That is much more than the previous record loss caused by the fabled Ekofisk blowout in the Norwegian North Sea in 1977, when an estimated 140,000 bbl. escaped before the well was capped after nine days...
...early 1960s, the nations that surround this stormy body of water have lived in dread of an environmental accident. Last week their worst fears were realized. As a team of specialists worked desperately to shut off the flow, oil spewed from a blown-out well in the Norwegian Ekofisk concession at a rate of some 4,000 tons a day. The spill drifted generally eastward in a slimy slick 32 kilometers (20 miles) long that not only threatened the coasts of Scandinavia but also seemed likely to affect the future of the offshore oil program...
Costly Accident. Efforts to control the runaway well began within minutes. The Seaway Falcon, a specially designed fire-fighting ship already on station in the Ekofisk complex, rushed to the well and began spraying it with 8,000 tons of sea water an hour to prevent it from catching fire. Other ships, dispatched by a crisis control center in Stavanger, Norway, stood by to help, while aircraft were warned to stay clear of the area. A small fleet of recovery ships deployed booms to contain the oil so it could be collected, but their work was hampered by heavy seas...
...blowout had been costly. All told, more than 20,000 tons of oil had spilled into the sea, threatening the fragile spawning grounds of herring, mackerel and other species that provide rich catches for fishermen in the area. During the capping operation, the entire Ekofisk complex, which normally produces 40,000 tons of oil a day, was shut down, costing both Phillips and the Norwegian government a bundle in lost revenues and taxes. Both the Norwegian and British governments have been hoping to expand drilling activities in the North Sea sectors under their control. Now that the inevitable accident...
...economic or environmental. A court injunction has restrained federal leasing of drilling sites in the Baltimore Canyon until a fuller ecological study is completed, and Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus is holding off on other leases. Meanwhile, the blowout on the Phillips Petroleum rig in Norway's Ekofisk field in the North Sea (see ENVIRONMENT) is certain to buttress environmentalists' arguments about the dangers of offshore drilling...