Two Norwegian Platforms Shut Down

Reports said that safety authorities ordered a production shutdown at two Norwegian offshore platforms Thursday, sharply reducing flows from the world's third largest oil exporter, an official said. The fields' operators — state oil company Statoil ASA and the Norwegian branch of Royal Dutch Shell PLC — were likely to keep the fields running at least until they meet safety officials on Friday. Officials from the Petroleum Safety Authority, said the agency wrote to the companies to say it did not accept lifeboat standards at Statoil's roughly 110,000-barrel-per-day Snorre A platform and Norske Shell ASA's 140,000-barrel-per-day Draugen field.

That essentially translated as an order for the platforms to shut down, Anda said, which would lead to a 9 percent drop in Norway's average daily production rate for August of about 2.7 million barrels of crude oil, light oil and natural gas liquids.

It is said that the other six platforms listed as having inadequate lifeboats were not closed because they had alternate evacuation systems that met regulations, while Snorre A and Draugen did not. The oil industry association said Wednesday that all lifeboats could be brought up to standard by late November. Source: AP