Petrochemicals giant Ineos has provided a photograph of the site where work is being carried out to fix a crack in the Forties pipeline.
Ineos has said it will take “weeks rather than days” to fix the leak, which was detected during a routine inspection at Netherley last week.
The 235-mile pipeline system links more than 80 North Sea field to the UK mainland and the Ineos site in Grangemouth. It delivers almost 40% of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas production.
Ineos completed a deal to buy the system from BP for up to £190million ($250million) at the end of October.
The petrochemicals giant said late last week that it had lowered the pressure in the pipeline after identifying the hairline fracture, but did not have to shut it down.
But yesterday Ineos said the crack had got bigger, forcing it into a controlled shutdown.
BP, Shell and Apache have all had to shut down production from a number of platforms served by Forties.
Recommended for you
