North Sea oil workers were battling last night to repair a pipe which has been leaking a mix of oil and water.
Talisman Energy engineers identified a crack in a pipeline which connects the Galley field to the Tartan Alpha platform, 117 miles north-east of Aberdeen.
Since it was discovered during a routine inspection, 88 barrels of fluids have leaked out of the damaged pipe, of which approximately 13 are oil and the rest is water.
Flushing operations have been carried out in conjunction with officials from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc).
The company, whose headquarters are in Holburn Street, is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company.
A spokeswoman said last night: “We take our responsibility to safeguard the environment very seriously and, as a precaution, we deployed a spill recovery and containment vessel with oil spill response equipment on board.
“We have also been monitoring the leak area by remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on a round-the-clock basis.
“The oil spill response vessel will remain on station during subsequent remedial works.”
While investigating the leak, which was initially discovered on August 24, a separate oil spill was observed by a spotter plane in the vicinity of the Galley field.
The sheen caused by the leak was noticeable from the air but, as yet, it has not been attributed to a particular installation or company.
Talisman Energy is involved because it had the necessary equipment on board to deal with the cracked pipeline and offered it to the Decc soit could deal with the spill.