A major offshore company has found the source of an oil spill at one of its North Sea operations.
Fairfield Energy will send a diving support vessel to begin repairs before it can restart production from the Osprey field, off Shetland.
A spokeswoman for Fairfield Energy said the source of the leak had been identified on Saturday.
She said: “After the hydrocarbon sheen reported in the vicinity of the Osprey subsea manifold last Tuesday, an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) survey has identified the source of the subsea leak less than five days after it was spotted.
“Fairfield Energy is arranging for a diving support vessel to implement the repairs and enable production from the Osprey field to restart.
“Very small quantities of oil are being released intermittently from the manifold, and this is dispersing readily in the prevailing weather conditions.”
The hydrocarbon sheen was reported close to the Osprey subsea manifold last Tuesday and two online wells were shut down, while boats and aircraft were sent in to monitor the sea surface.
The firm reported that up to 8.7 tonnes of hydrocarbons may have been lost and dispersed naturally. On Friday, surveillance flights were unable to detect any oil in the vicinity.
The UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) concluded that the spill presented no risk to personnel and would have no impact on the environment.
Osprey is a multi-well subsea development that feeds back to the Fairfield-owned Dunlin Alpha installation, located 120 miles north-east of Shetland.