An oil spill at the Gannet Alpha rig offshore east of Aberdeen, UK, is the country’s biggest in a decade. Shell, which runs the rig, says the main leak is under control but a is proving trickier to plug.
In an official statement, Shell said: “The initial release path was stopped on Thursday, however the oil found a second pathway to the sea.” The company has struggled to find the new leak, but now believes it is coming from a relief valve next to the main flowline, which was the source of the original leak.
The oil slick is approximately 0.5 square kilometres in size, and is moving west towards the Scottish coast, but Shell claims it should disperse naturally before it reaches the shore. It is currently 160 kilometres offshore.
The UK government’s is conducting twice-daily flybys. A spokesperson said the slick had shrunk considerably since the weekend, suggesting that waves were indeed dispersing it.
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So far there are no reports of wildlife being affected, according to , which is also surveying the area.
Shell estimates that so far. By comparison, , the most recent year for which data is available. The , when 524 tonnes were spilled. However, the spill is tiny compared with Deepwater Horizon, which last year released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Greenpeace criticised Shell for a , pointing out that the spill was made public only 48 hours after it began.
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