OSLO, Norway—Government-controlled oil company StatoilHydro ASA said Friday that a 25,000-barrel North Sea oil spill was caused by a broken hose used to load crude onto tankers.
The spill, which happened Wednesday, was the second worst in Norway's offshore history.
The oil, spilled at the Statfjord offshore field, was not expected to reach the Norwegian coast, about 125 miles away, and much of the light crude was expected to evaporate or break up in waves, the company and experts said.
The crude spilled when it was being transferred to an oil tanker from a floating loading buoy. StatoilHydro said it had used a remotely operated miniature submarine to inspect the system and that it found a 19-inch (48-centimeter) diameter flexible oil hose that had been torn in two. The cause of the break was not immediately determined.
The company said no more oil was leaking and the Statfjord field was producing normally. StatoilHydro said it would try to used spill collection systems to remove the remaining oil from the surface of the ocean.
The spill was smaller than the worst oil leak in the history of the Norwegian oil industry, in 1977, when an oil platform blowout spewed 78,000 barrels of crude into the ocean.
StatoilHydro employs about 31,000 people and is the main player on the offshore fields that make Norway a major exporter of oil and natural gas.
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