A STABILISATION operation is under way after two North Sea oil vessels lost tension in their anchors due to storm-force winds.
Hugh Shaw, the secretary of state’s representative for maritime salvage and intervention, said last night that two linked storage vessels had suffered problems about 120 miles east of the Aberdeen coast as a result of Thursday’s severe weather.
The tanker Apollo Spirit, which is storing 96,300 tonnes of oil, lost tension in one of her eight anchors but is said to have remained securely in position.
The Petrojarl Banff, which has 4,400 tonnes of crude oil on board, lost tension in five of her 10 anchors and moved up to 270 yards from its operational position during the height of the storm.
It is now said to be stable, about 75 yards from her original location.
Mr Shaw said all 67 people on board the two vessels, operated by Teekay Petrojarl on behalf of the licence holder CNR International, have been accounted for and are safe and there have been no reports of any pollution.
He said: “The subsea isolation valves have been closed and secured, the maximum volume of the pipelines from the vessel to the isolation valves is approximately 120 tonnes, this includes the export line between the vessels.
“There has been no report of pollution and the risk of any spillage at this time is very low.
“However, we are closely monitoring the situation.
“An anchor-handling vessel is on site and lending support to both vessels.
“CNR International has mobilised four additional anchor handling tugs to provide further assistance.
“DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) has initiated its incident response procedures and is working with all relevant agencies.”
Scottish Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “I’m aware of the ongoing incident and being kept fully informed of developments. Marine Scotland is participating in the Operations Control Unit, liaising closely with DECC.
“Clearly the first priority is to ensure the safety of those on board and I understand that all 67 crew members on board the two vessels have been accounted for and are safe.
“An anchor-handling vessel is on site lending support to both vessels and four additional anchor-handling tugs have been mobilised to provide further assistance.
“Fortunately there have been no reports of any potential pollution but we will continue to monitor the situation closely.”