OIL giant Royal Dutch Shell said today it had shut down a drilling rig off the coast of Alabama after about 7,600 gallons of synthetic and biodegradable drilling fluid leaked.
Shell said the leak was not from a well on the ocean floor, which is what happened in the massive 2010 BP oil spill.
But this drilling site is in the same Mississippi Canyon region as the BP spill and is some 7,300 feet deep.
The US Coast Guard said the problem was reported on Sunday and that the leaking line was connected to a vessel supplying the drilling fluid. It said more than half of the leaking fluid was oil.