OSLO - Royal Dutch/Shell said on Wednesday that its platform in the Draugen oilfield in the North Sea would remain closed for at least a couple days after the discovery of a small oil condensate leak.
"We will know during this week when we can start up the production again. There won't be any production today (Wednesday) or tomorrow, though," Draugen spokesman Svein Ildgruben told AFP.
Royal Dutch/Shell operates the only platform in the Draugen field, Norway's main producing field, which produces 120,000 barrels per day.
The platform was closed on Tuesday after the leak of condensate, a very light type of oil, was found on the deck.
In January the platform was shut for a week, after bad weather delayed the repair of damaged loading equipment, and two North Sea oil platforms operated by Norway's Statoil remained shut for more than two months after being hit by a gas leak last November.
Tuesday's shutdown came as global oil prices reached a four-month high. In the world's oil markets, US light crude traded at 54.59 dollars on Tuesday, the highest level in four months and only just shy of the all-time record set of 55.67 dollars, set on October 25, 2004.
Norway, which is the world's third-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, normally has an average daily production of three million barrels.
03/09/2005 12:32 GMT