North Sea operator Taqa Bratani has said non-essential staff are being flown off its Cormorant Alpha platform after an oil leak was found.
The leak was discovered in one of the concrete gravity-based platform’s legs, leading to the platform and the Brent pipeline system being shut in.
Cormorant Alpha acts as a hub for a number of other fields before oil is sent by the Brent pipeline system to Sullom Voe, Shetland.
Taqa said there was no evidence any oil had leaked outside the leg and that the removal of non-essential staff was a precaution.
Cormorant Alpha, about 232 miles from Peterhead, handles around 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, of which 42,600 bpd are produced by Taqa.
Taqa said a technical team was investigating the source of the oil leak.
“There are 159 people on board and our number one priority is the safety and well-being of our people,” said a spokesman.
“All those on board have been accounted for and they are all safe and well. We have stopped all non-essential work on the platform to focus all our efforts on addressing this issue.
“As a precaution, we will be taking all non-essential crew off the installation. This will be done by scheduled helicopter flights throughout the day.”