Statoil evacuates after gas leak

A gas leak was reported at Statoil’s Kårstø processing plant last January 7 at 10:30pm. All personnel have been accounted for and evacuated from the site. There is now only a skeleton crew of 25 people who are at the facility to manage the incident.

In an update, Statoil says that the pressure is starting to fall and work is continuing on depressurising the facility. The gas leak occurred in the Statpipe-facility where the gas pipelines connect to the facility for processing.

There may be visible flames (controlled burn-off of gas) from the three process flares at the facility while this continues.

The cause of the incident has not as yet been determined.